Linking a non budget issue to force a shutdown is a mistake the Democrats made

James Robbins:

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This government shutdown differs from previous ones because the direct cause of the impasse has nothing to do with the budget. Democrats are attempting to use the process to force a decision on the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy that affects 800,000 immigrants. Polls show majority support for resolving DACA as a standalone issue. However, a CNN poll released Friday showed that a majority of Americans think that keeping the government open is more important than fixing DACA by 56% to 34%. The poll also showed blame for the shutdown somewhat evenly distributed between Democrats in Congress (31%), Republicans in Congress (26%) and President Trump (21%). Ten percent blame all three.

Linking a non-budget issue to force a shutdown shows how dysfunctional the system has become. And since the deadline to resolve DACA is not until March, there is no pressing reason to force a crisis over it now. “We believe strongly in immigration reform,” New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said. “We could say, ‘We’re shutting down the government, we’re not gonna raise the debt ceiling, until you pass immigration reform.’ It would be governmental chaos.” But that was Schumer in 2013. In 2018, he has decided that governmental chaos is just fine, which supports the White House argument that this is the “Schumer shutdown.”
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There is some evidence that this is backfiring on the Democrats based on comments on social media.  People who were willing to deal DACA to get other immigration reform and now less will to do DACA under any circumstances.  They see the Democrats as putting illegal aliens ahead of US citizens.  That is not a good place to be with the voters.