{"id":58967,"date":"2018-02-16T06:14:04","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T06:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=58967"},"modified":"2018-02-16T06:14:04","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T06:14:04","slug":"house-gop-pushes-hardline-immigration-plan-as-senate-deals-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/house-gop-pushes-hardline-immigration-plan-as-senate-deals-fail.html","title":{"rendered":"House GOP pushes hardline immigration plan as Senate deals fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

House GOP pushes hardline immigration plan as Senate deals fail<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

House GOP leaders are forging ahead with their own hardline immigration bill, as the Senate threw in the towel Thursday on legislation to protect hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main author of the House bill, Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), said Thursday that he\u2019s building support for his measure, even as other GOP colleagues said an initial vote tally this week was well below the 218 votes needed to pass the bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaker Paul Ryan\u2019s (R-Wis.) \u201cinstructions to me are \u2018get this bill done,\u2019 and we\u2019re working hard to accomplish that,\u201d Goodlatte said in an interview for C-SPAN\u2019s \u201cNewsmakers\u201d program.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) \u201care all in to get that done and we\u2019re going to work very hard,\u201d Goodlatte said, adding that his Securing America\u2019s Future Act has White House approval.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good about it,\u201d Goodlatte said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if the House could pass the Goodlatte bill, there are clear signs the legislation would be dead on arrival in the Senate. The measure is further to the right than a conservative immigration proposal backed by the White House that overwhelmingly failed in the Senate on Thursday, 39 to 60.<\/span><\/p>\n

The difficult odds facing the Goodlatte framework underscore the challenge for Republicans as they vow to find a permanent fix for the so-called \u201cDreamers\u201d \u2014 a complex, emotional and highly personal legislative issue \u2014 but have yet to identify a plan that can pass both the House and the Senate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cClearly we\u2019ve got some divides within our conference,\u201d Scalise told The Hill. \u201cWith a bill like this, there\u2019s always work to do. And we\u2019re in the process of doing that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But even some conservatives who say they would ultimately support the hardline approach wouldn\u2019t mind if the issue does not end up getting resolved.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a hard and fast view on the Goodlatte bill and whether it should come up for a vote,\u201d said Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. \u201cI\u2019ve got a mild preference because it keeps leadership\u2019s commitment, but if it doesn\u2019t, I\u2019m not disturbed about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the president should enforce the laws that are on the books and aggressively deport illegal aliens who are here on American soil,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

GOP leaders agreed to start whipping the Goodlatte measure this week amid growing pressure from House conservatives, who were worried about getting stuck with a bipartisan Senate immigration bill from the Senate that would not be tough enough for their standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump is ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and gave Congress until March 5 to come up with a permanent legal fix, but an agreement on how to do that has so far divided Republicans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scalise informed the GOP conference during a meeting this week that the whip count on the Goodlatte bill came back below the 218 votes needed, according to a source in the room.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaders are still working to build support for the measure, sending bill sponsors back to the drawing board to explore whether they can make changes to win over more Republicans.<\/span><\/p>\n

But some members say the House might not feel as much urgency to act if the Senate can\u2019t get anything over the finish line. They also said that recent court rulings blocking Trump from ending DACA have taken away some of the pressure to move quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no question it becomes less immediate,\u201d said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.).<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan and his team have repeatedly emphasized that they are committed to solving DACA, but they have not outlined leadership\u2019s plan for an immigration bill if the Goodlatte measure can\u2019t get enough GOP support to pass.<\/span><\/p>\n

Goodlatte\u2019s plan would provide DACA recipients with a temporary, renewable legal status \u2014 rather than citizenship \u2014 in exchange for authorizing funding for Trump\u2019s border wall, ending family-based migration and scrapping the diversity visa lottery program.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Goodlatte plan also includes tough border-enforcement measures: The bill would crack down on so-called sanctuary cities, boost penalties for deported criminals who try to re-enter the U.S. and requires that employers use an electronic verification system known as E-Verify to make sure they hire legal workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the proposal has run into several pockets of opposition in the GOP conference. Immigration hawks think it doesn\u2019t go far enough, moderates want a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and members who represent the agricultural industry worry it will disrupt the labor force.<\/span><\/p>\n

Goodlatte already made some tweaks to appease the agricultural industry’s concerns over the guest worker program that is established by the legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n

But lawmakers from agricultural regions say the changes aren\u2019t enough. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), who represents the Golden State\u2019s agriculture-heavy Central Valley, said he\u2019s still opposed to the bill because the cap on seasonal workers is still too low and the \u201ctouchback\u201d provisions do not provide strong enough guarantees workers will be able to come back to the U.S. once they return to their home countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ryan\u2019s options on immigration are limited, given that he promised to put an immigration measure on the floor only if it has a majority of the GOP\u2019s support and only if Trump would sign it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawmakers acknowledge that the Goodlatte bill wasn\u2019t going to pass the Senate, but they wanted to have a strong starting point in the DACA negotiations if there was a conference \u2014 a scenario that now looks far less likely.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have an obligation to move bills, as we always do, but it is nonsensical to suggest that if the Senate can\u2019t produce a bill, that comprehensive immigration is moving to the president\u2019s desk,\u201d said Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.), who supports the Goodlatte framework.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these votes are tough votes. But you want to take a tough vote that is going to matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Democrats and even some Republicans will certainly continue to fight to resolve DACA by the next government funding deadline on March 23, when Democratic support will be needed to pass an omnibus spending bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still serious about trying to get to a common position here,\u201d said Cole, a senior appropriator. \u201cEyes are turning pretty rapidly to the omnibus.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/374145-house-gop-pushes-hardline-immigration-plan-as-senate-deals-fail<\/span><\/p>\n

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