Immigration bill blocked

House vote on Republican compromise legislation delayed

WASHINGTON — The House rejected a hard-line immigration bill Thursday and postponed a vote on a Republican compromise version the day after the Trump administration suspended the separation of

children and parents on the Southwest border.

The House voted 193231 to defeat a bill by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-VA., that called for strengthening border security and offered temporary protections for so-called Dreamers, immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. However, it failed to provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers sought by Democrats and moderate Republicans.

There were 41 Republicans who voted with Democrats to sink the Goodlatte bill. Nevada’s congressional delegation voted along party lines, with Rep. Mark Amodei, R-nev., voting for the bill and the state’s three Democratic representa

IMMIGRATION

tives — Dina Titus, Jacky Rosen and Ruben Kihuen — voting against.

Meanwhile, a second Republican compromise bill appeared on the brink of collapse. That bill would provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers, as well as offer a legislative remedy to keep children with parents after crossing the border without documentation, and accelerate the adjudication of those cases.

A vote on the compromise bill was abruptly postponed and rescheduled first for Friday, and then later, next week.

“We do not want children taken from their parents,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-wis., said before the first vote Thursday.

Ryan said Republicans tried to craft a compromise to offer protections and eventual citizenship for Dreamers, and provide a legislative fix to the family separations at the border that have been condemned by world leaders. It also contained $25 billion for a Southwest border wall.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-calif., called the GOP bill “a compromise with the devil,” but not a deal with Democrats.

Titus called the legislation “the dream killer bill,” which also would have eliminated family-based immigration. Rosen accused Republicans of playing “partisan games” instead of working with Democrats to find a bipartisan solution.

Conservatives, moderates at odds

The compromise was crafted by Republican leaders to bridge a gap between GOP conservatives and moderates.

But even some House Republicans vented their frustration over the slapdash process that did not provide for amendments to a bill that was thrust upon members in the past 72 hours with a pep talk by President Donald Trump.

Amodei was critical of GOP leadership and said the procedure being used “represents a new low” for the legislative system. He said he voted for the Goodlatte bill because it at least would have provided temporary protection for Dreamers.

Moderate Republicans in the House forced the immigration debate to the fore by threatening