Ryan vows to produce immigration legislation
Speaker aims for compromise bill despite internal GOP divide
WASHINGTON » House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday promised to produce a compromise bill that would protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation as he tries to avoid an internal showdown that threatens to split the GOP and alienate midterm voters.
Republicans huddled privately for two hourswithout a clear resolution on a seemingly intractable issue that pits conservative hard-liners aligned with President Donald Trump against moderates frustrated with inaction.
However, Ryan signaled that an effort is still underway to bridge the divide between the warring factions, but it remains to be seen if a compromise is possible. Highlighting the tenuous state of the talks, moderates said Thursday they had reached an accord with conservatives on
a key sticking point, while conservative leaders denied any such deal was in place.
“It’s clear that there are a lot of areas of consensus,” said Ryan, R-Wis., at his weekly news conference. “We have the right kind of conversations happening, and the next step is to start putting pen to paper so we can get legislation to the floor.”
At stake is whether the House will act this year to offer protections to “dreamers” — young undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children and are now at risk for deportation due to Trump’s cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
A group of renegade GOP moderates has moved with Democrats to try to force votes on immigration legislation later this month in defiance of Republican leaders, who are now scrambling to forge some sort of legislative compromise that could avert an election-year slugfest on the House floor.
Immigration has exposed the divide in the GOP, and leaders have warned that showdown votes five months before the election could cost the GOP its majority control of the House.
Members left the room Thursday expressing optimism but seeing little evidence of an imminent breakthrough. “If there was one option that could get both sides together right now we wouldn’t be having this meeting today,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., a moderate.
Several Republicans, including Ryan, said the discussion inside the meeting surrounded crafting a bill that would adhere to Trump’s January immigration framework, which called for a path to citizenship, but also a wall on the Mexico border and cutbacks to two existing legal immigration pathways.
“Hopefully we can find a path ahead that is consistent with the four pillars that the president laid out and avoids a pointless discharge petition,” Ryan said.
But even within that “four pillars” framework, plenty remained unsettled. Sticking points include determining how many dreamers ought to be entitled to a path to citizenship, how far to scale back the existing rules allowing U. S. citizens and legal permanent residents to sponsor family members for immigration, and how to structure any border wall funding.
Other Republicans have also proposed adding other elements to a GOP immigration bill, such as a guest worker program for the agricultural industry. And the basic question of whether dreamers ought to have any path to citizenship at all has not been definitively answered by the most conservative House Republicans, who have long opposed any amnesty for illegal immigrants.
“Ultimately, what it comes down to is the citizenship question and how you deal with that,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, RN.C., chairman of the hardright House Freedom Caucus. “That has been the thorniest issue from the start and remains still the most difficult issue.”
Two Republicans familiar with the talks said Freedom Caucus representatives privately floated a new visa program for DACA recipients that would include a potential path to citizenship. Meadows declined to comment on that claim.
The moderates face a Tuesday deadline to complete their “discharge petition,” which is currently three signatures short of completion.
It remained unclear whether the leaders of the effort would proceed to collect the final signatures in the coming days. Some moderates who have signed the petition saw notable progress Thursday.
“I think the conversation was productive enough in there that they will delay the discharge petition and continue to work on writing a bill that we can all vote on,” said Rep. Dave Trott, R-Mich. “I think we’ll see something pretty quickly.”
Thursday’s meeting came after a smaller group of negotiators struggled on Wednesday to agree on compromise immigration legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for the dreamers, defuse the GOP rebellion and bridge the divide between the party’s warring factions.
Among the attendees Thursday was White House legislative director Marc Short, who said upon leaving that the discussions were headed in a positive direction and warned against the “discharge petition” that the moderates are pursuing.
“A discharge petition turns the House floor over to Nancy Pelosi, which is not ideal for us advancing our agenda,” Short said, referring to the top Democratic House leader.
“We have the right kind of conversations happening, and the next step is to start putting pen to paper so we can get legislation to the floor.” — Paul Ryan, R-Wis., at his weekly news conference