House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Wednesday protested the chamber's stalled immigration talks with a marathon speech on the House floor that lasted well over eight hours, NPR reports.
Congressional leaders earlier in the day reached a two-year budget deal to avoid a federal government shutdown, but Pelosi said she would not support any agreement without a commitment from House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to vote on an immigration bill to protect immigrants covered under DACA.
DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, allowed people who illegally came to the United States as children with their parents to stay if they met certain criteria. Trump ended DACA in September with a six-month delay and said Congress needed to come up with a solution for the affected Dreamers.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has promised Senate debate on immigration, and Ryan earlier in the week told reporters he would bring up a "Dreamers" deal if Trump signed off on it.
"We've been very clear about this," Ryan said. "We will take a bill that the president supports."
The DACA program is set to expire March 5, and Pelosi said lawmakers need to act if they really care.
"We do not deserve any right — any of us — to say we love DREAMers, or anything like that, unless we have an intention of doing anything about it," Pelosi said more than four hours into the speech.
Pelosi later went on Twitter to thank people who cheered her on with the hashtag, #GoNancyGo
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