According to reports, the bill to fund the government until Feb 16, did not receive the 60 votes required to pass it in the senate.

Lawmakers have not yet agreed to an alternative plan and it is unclear as to what will happen next.

The last US federal shutdown took place in 2013. It lasted for 16 days.

If a shutdown takes place, emergency services will be affected, including national security, air traffic control, post, electricity production, disaster assistance, prison among several others. Processing of passports and visa will also be slowed down significantly.

Why the fallout?

While US President Donald Trump is in favour of creating new rules, he has put particular attention to scrapping former President Barack Obama-laid programmes, including DACA.

Trump's DACA scrapping has not sat well with Democrats.

In the meantime, the US President has put more emphasis on building the 'wall' along US-Mexico border, to protect the southern part of the country.

According to Trump, the money used by the US to grant asylum and look after the 700,000 odd undocumented immigrants, can be utilised by the army, increasing US' military might.

"Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy," he tweeted ahead of Friday's meeting. 

What is DACA?

DACA or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program that gives legal protection to the young immigrants, who are known as 'Dreamers'. Dreamers were able to request “consideration of deferred action” for a period of two years, which is subject to renewal.

Nearly 800,000 undocumented youth benefit from the programme.

Requirement for DACA status:

• Aged under 31 on June 15, 2012

• Came to the U.S. before turning 16

• Continuously lived in the country since June 15, 2007

• Have a high school diploma

• Recipients could not have a criminal record