After the House of Representatives killed a hard-line immigration bill Thursday, Republican leaders of the chamber abruptly delayed a vote on their compromise alternative.
Lawmakers carried on debate over the bill, but it will not come up for a vote until Friday at the earliest — and likely not even then. That’s a bad sign for its prospects.
“It’s not looking good,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
Not that Mehlman was complaining. His organization, along with most hard-line immigration groups, opposed the legislation.
“It’s a much bigger amnesty,” he said, comparing it to the first bill, sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) “It applies to more than just the DACA [Deferred Action for Children Arrivals] recipients. There was no E-Verify, which is absolutely the linchpin.”
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and other GOP House leaders put together the proposal to stave off a parliamentary maneuver known as a discharge petition, which would have wrested floor control away from the retiring Wisconsin Republican (pictured above) over the immigration issue and allowed votes on more-liberal proposals.
The bill would grant amnesty to as many as 2.2 million illegal immigrants brought to America as children and provide $25 billion for construction of the new border wall sought by President Donald Trump. The measure also includes other border security provisions, bars separation of children from parents arrested near the border, and eliminates two categories of family-sponsored immigration.
But the compromise effort fell flat, getting a lukewarm response from many conservative House Republicans. Democrats, whose support would be crucial to passing the bill, made clear that they were in no mood to help. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) needled his Republican colleagues over their inability to cobble together a majority.
“So, again, this is a fake DACA bill, and obviously someone has lost their nerve, because we’re not gonna even vote on it,” he said.
Even President Donald Trump, who supported the bill, threw cold water on it.
“What is the purpose of the House doing good immigration bills when you need 9 votes by Democrats in the Senate, and the Dems are only looking to Obstruct (which they feel is good for them in the Mid-Terms). Republicans must get rid of the stupid Filibuster Rule-it is killing you!” he tweeted in the morning.
Later, he tweeted, “You cannot pass legislation on immigration whether it be for safety and security or any other reason including ‘heart,’ without getting Dem votes. Problem is, they don’t care about security and R’s do. Zero Dems voted to support the Goodlatte Bill. They won’t vote for anything!”
“The Ryan bill is just an amnesty bill, as I understand.”
Quoting Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-S.C.), Bloomberg News reported late Thursday that the House would not vote on Friday, either.
According to an analysis this week by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the Ryan-backed bill would result in a net increase of 2.12 million green cards over the next 15 years after factoring in the impact of new immigrants from “chain migration” provisions, which would not be ended.
That compares with a projected net decrease of 1.23 million in the Goodlatte bill, because its amnesty would have covered only DACA recipients and made sharper, more immediate cuts to chain migration.
Related: House Defeats Hard-line Immigration Reform Bill
Andrew “Art” Arthur, senior fellow in law and policy at the center, said the Ryan-backed bill does nothing to punish cities and counties that refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. It also fails to require businesses to use the E-Verify system to ensure that new hires are legally permitted to work in the United States.
“You want an amnesty bill first and have a border security bill later? How many votes are you going to get for that?” he asked. “The compromise isn’t consistent with the president’s four pillars.”
David Cross, a spokesman for Oregonians for Immigration Reform, said he hopes the House rejects the bill.
“The Ryan bill is just an amnesty bill, as I understand,” he said.
Cross said the bill goes against the promises Trump made during the 2016 campaign.
“The Ryan bill is a betrayal of the whole process of the election,” he said.
PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.
(photo credit, homepage image: Paul Ryan, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore; article image: Paul Ryan, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)
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