GOP moderates to float new DACA deal

GOP moderates to float new DACA deal

The move comes as their attempt to force floor votes to help Dreamers is losing steam.

By RACHAEL BADE, JOHN BRESNAHAN and HEATHER CAYGLE
06/12/2018 05:45 PM EDT

Moderate House Republicans will float a new offer to conservatives Tuesday night in hopes of reaching an immigration deal to shield Dreamers from deportation, according to multiple GOP sources.

The group of two-dozen Republicans from swing districts — who for weeks threatened to join with Democrats to codify the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Program — have offered to include enhanced enforcement measures in legislation in order to secure an agreement. Conservatives are demanding added enforcement as part of any deal that includes pathway to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants who came here as children.

Both sides are expected to discuss the issue at a 5:30 p.m. meeting in Speaker Paul Ryan’s office. Moderates have threatened to sign onto a discharge petition to force votes on bipartisan immigration bills that conservatives strongly oppose if they don’t get an agreement.

“We have bill text,” said Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), one of the moderates leading the discharge petition effort. “I’m waiting to see if we all come together on it.”

It is unclear whether the offer will be enough to win the backing of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Group leader Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and top immigration expert Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) want any deal to mandate that all employers verify the legal status of their workers, known as E-verify. They’ve also pushed for a more stringent asylum system, which immigration opponents believe has been routinely abused.

Moderates appear to be considering tougher asylum standards but say E-Verify is problematic. While some moderates back the employment verification system, they say it must be accompanied by a guest worker program allowing immigrants to work on farms and in construction, for example, jobs many Americans won’t take.

Adding both provision would complicate an immigration deal they believe should be narrowly tailored, they argue.

The latest round of negotiations comes as the moderates’ discharge petition appears to be losing steam. Moderates were counting on Reps. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) to sign on, becoming the 216 and 217 signatories respectively. But House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has convinced Ross to hold off by promising him a vote on a guest worker program before the August recess.

That means it‘s unclear that moderates can get to the 218 signatures it takes to force the issue on the House floor.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...derates-642335

GOP deal on 8 year visas for DACA 'Dreamers' throws talks on immigration bill into chaos

Paul Ryan announces two immigration votes, halts rogue effort to force DACA issue

Eliza Collins, USA TODAYWASHINGTON — Speaker Paul Ryan announced Tuesday night the House will consider two immigration bills next week to halt a bipartisan effort designed to force a series of votes on the divisive issue.
It is the first time the House will take up legislation to protect undocumented immigrants that came to the U.S. as children, known as DREAMers.
Ryan's announcement means GOP leadership has avoided an embarrassing defeat by rogue moderates of their party and every House Democrat. On Tuesday, the bipartisan group was just two signatures away from putting into a play a rare maneuver — known as a discharge petition — to go around the speaker and bring legislation to the floor
But the decision was far from a win for Ryan and his gang who failed to mend the party’s deep divides on the issue despite frequent meetings they insisted were moving in a positive direction.
“Members across the Republican Conference have negotiated directly and in good faith with each other for several weeks, and as a result, the House will consider two bills next week that will avert the discharge petition and resolve the border security and immigration issues," AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said in a statement. Strong said more details would be released after the party met Wednesday morning.
Ryan had been hosting frequent meetings between the party's conservative and moderate factions trying to bring them together on legislation that could pass with just Republican votes. But as of Tuesday night no compromise had been announced. Instead the House will vote on two competing bills.
The discharge petition is a rarely successful maneuver that allows a bill to reach the floor of the House even if it hasn't been approved by a committee, or scheduled for a vote by the speaker. If a majority of House members sign on to the discharge petition, it bypasses the committee process and goes straight to the House floor. It is particularly unusual for a discharge petition to be initiated by members of the majority party.

The discharge petition was first put on the floor in early May and got the majority of its support last month, but the final handful of Republicans waited to sign on to give time to GOP leaders to find a compromise within the party. The last Democratic holdout signed on Tuesday night leaving just two empty spots for GOP lawmakers.
Because of complicated House rules, lawmakers needed to get the required signatures by Tuesday for the discharge petition to be brought up this month.
Ryan is used to having to wrangle members from the far-right of his party, but the moderate Republicans who joined with Democrats to force the immigration vote represented a new — and embarrassing — challenge for the outgoing speaker. Ryan and the rest of his leadership team have been vocal about their disdain for the discharge petition and believed it could damage their chances of holding onto the House come November.
This discharge petition included a “Queen of the Hill” process that required votes on four different DACA proposals and stated that the one receiving the most votes would pass.
The discharge petition was launched by moderate Republicans Reps. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, Jeff Denham of California and Will Hurd of Texas in May. All three have been participating in the intraparty negotiations, while they made clear they would continue to move ahead with the discharge petition if a compromise was not reached. Despite pleas from GOP leadership to stay away, Republican members continued to sign on. Late last week, Democrats joined the 20 Republicans in bulk putting the petition close enough to make conservatives nervous.
Members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus demanded last month that leadership put the so-called Goodlatte bill on the floor before a vote on the unrelated farm bill.
That conservative legislation was sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee It sought to cut legal immigration, strengthen border security and provide temporary legal status on a renewable basis. The president had thrown his support behind that bill, but the temporary protections and drastic cuts to legal immigration left that measure with no support from Democrats and opposition from some Republicans as well.
GOP leadership said that they’d bring that bill to the floor in June but Freedom Caucus members determined that wasn’t soon enough and withheld votes last week to sink the farm bill, despite supporting the content of the bill.
Nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children have been in limbo ever since President Trump ended the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last fall. The president gave Congress until March to find a solution but lawmakers remained frozen on the issue. The Senate had a series of failed votes in February and the House did not bring any DACA-related legislation the floor. Federal courts have forced the administration to keep the program running, setting up a possible Supreme Court showdown later this year.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...newstopstories

ON POLITICS NEWSLETTER

For political junkies who want a
little attitude with their democracy.

Published 10:13 p.m. ET June 12, 2018 | Updated 10:48 p.m. ET June 12, 2018

This doesn't sound too good. I hope the Dems will oppose either of these bills.

Hoyer is saying that tougher amendments would kill Dem support for the Hurd-Aguiilar bill.

Hoyer warns GOP: Don’t dabble with DACA compromise bill

BY MIKE LILLIS - 06/12/18 02:20 PM EDT


Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) warned Republicans on Tuesday not to dabble with a bipartisan immigration bill that would provide legal protections to people who came to the country illegally as children.

The bill, sponsored by Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), would combine the protections for so-called “Dreamers” with new efforts to bolster security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The proposal is one of four immigration bills that would be considered if centrist Republicans are successful with their procedural maneuver, known as a discharge petition, to force immigration votes on the House floor over the objection of GOP leaders.

The Hurd-Aguilar proposal is thought to have the best chance of winning a “queen-of-the-hill” contest in which the four bills are considered back-to-back and the proposal with the most votes, beyond 218, goes to the Senate. But some Democrats are growing increasingly concerned that the Republicans may try to add tougher enforcement provisions, favored by conservatives, to win the support of President Trump.

Hoyer on Tuesday said Democrats favor a more liberal proposal, the Dream Act, to rescue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which Trump is fighting to wind down. But he noted that the Hurd-Aguilar bill enjoys more support with Republicans, and predicted that Democrats would unite with centrist Republicans to sink any proposed changes to the bipartisan legislation.“I think Hurd-Aguilar has got the votes to pass as-is, and I think we’ve got the votes to defeat amendments,” Hoyer said. “I think that’s what our strategy will be.”
The centrist Republicans are hoping to win 218 signatures on their discharge petition by the end of Tuesday — a deadline that would force immigration votes on June 25. The petition currently has 215 signatures, but the list of potential Republican signatories is a short one, and it’s unclear if any more are willing to buck their leadership and sign on.
A failure to win 218 signatures before Wednesday would mean the moderates would have just one more shot, on July 23, to force DACA votes before November’s midterm elections.

The debate has highlighted the sharp divide within the Republican conference when it comes to immigration issues, particularly the question of how to approach the millions of people living in the country illegally.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and other GOP leaders are scrambling to seal a deal between the centrists and conservatives in their conference, which would defuse the petition and prevent votes on the more liberal bills — including the Dream Act and Hurd-Aguilar — that would be discharged if the device is successful.

Hoyer, for his part, said Ryan’s motives are strictly political.
“The Speaker doesn’t want to bring [the Dream Act] to the floor because he doesn’t want his members to vote against a bill — as they will — that the overwhelming majority of the American people thinks makes sense,” Hoyer said.

“It’s not that Donald Trump won’t sign it or the Senate won’t pass it. It’s they don’t want their members to be spotted.”

• BREAKING NEWS
  
  GOP House moderates fall 2 signatures shy of forcing DACA vote
  
  Republican moderates in the U.S. House late Tuesday were two signatures shy of forcing a vote on a proposal addressing DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) the Obama-era program for delaying deportations of those who entered the U.S. illegally as children.
• Two competing immigration bills are expected to be debated next week.
  
• More on this
• For more news, please go to FoxNews.comand watch Fox News Channel.