GOP set for showdown vote today
WASHINGTON» House Republicans are set to vote Wednesday on a hard-fought immigration compromise between conservative and moderate GOP flanks, but the bill has lost any real chance for passage despite a public outcry over the crisis at the border.
Instead, lawmakers are expected to turn toward a narrow bill to prevent immigrant family separations in hopes of addressing that issue before leaving town for the Fourth of July recess.
GOP leaders set out to pass the sweeping immigration measure on their own, without Democratic
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input, after some members agitated for action. Now they are facing almost certain defeat, stung by their own divisions and President Donald Trump’s wavering support.
It remained unclear late Tuesday what the final version of the immigration legislation would contain. GOP negotiators had been working over the weekend on an amendment to tack on provisions to draw more support. But it was not expected to be included.
The broader bill includes tradeoffs, including a multi-year path to citizenship for young immigrants who have been living in the U.S. illegally since childhood and $25 billion for Trump’s border wall. It also would stem family separations at the border by doing away with longstanding rules that prevents minors from being detained for more than 20 days; instead, children could be held in custody with their parents for longer stretches.
House Speaker Paul Ryan insisted the drawn-out effort has been worthwhile and could lay the groundwork for an eventual legislative package. But that outcome is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Wednesday’s vote was expected to be a check-the-box exercise designed to fulfill a promise to moderate Republicans who demanded the House GOP address immigration.
“We have a big conference with big, different views,” Ryan said about the GOP majority that controls the House. “What we have here is the seeds of consensus that will be gotten to, hopefully now, but, if not, later.”
In a last-ditch effort to round up more support, GOP negotiators were considering an amendment requiring employers to verify legal status of employees and addressing immigrant workers in the agricultural sector. They also considered a provision to prevent parents of young immigrants from gaining citizenship.
But with Trump panning the entire package, and wavering lawmakers backing off, moderate leaders were weighing whether it made sense to pile on more provisions if there were no more supporters to be gained.
Instead, they were settling on a version without the late changes.
Final passage remained in doubt because many conservatives are simply opposed to the legislation’s underlying provision — a chance for citizenship for many immigrants who arrived illegally in the U.S. as children.
Democrats widely oppose the Republican overhaul. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump needs to fix the problem created by the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of criminally prosecuting anyone caught crossing illegally that resulted in family separations at the border.