House Speaker Paul Ryan said he is trying to work out a deal with Republicans on an immigration reform bill that has enough support to pass.
But so far, he said, no bill has enough support, and he argued against holding votes on bills that can’t go anywhere.
“Clearly, we don’t have 218 votes for a specific bill,” Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday.
Ryan pointed to the failure of the Senate this year to pass an immigration reform measure after debating four proposals that included a wide range of proposals.
“Frankly, when the Senate failed to pass anything, that surprised us a bit,” Ryan said.
Ryan said he believed President Trump’s four-part proposal to secure the border, reform legal immigration and provide a pathway to citizenship to so-called Dreamers who came here illegally as children, would have passed the Senate. But it failed, receiving only 39 votes.
“When they killed that bill, that made me less optimistic,” Ryan said.
Republican leaders are now “going through the same process here” with GOP lawmakers on immigration reform.
Conservatives are pushing for a vote on a bill that would limit legal immigration, provide ample funding for border security, require E-verify for employers and legalize the Dreamers. But that bill also lacks enough votes.
Moderate Republicans, meanwhile, say there are enough GOP lawmakers to successfully force a vote on a series of immigration reform bills, even if none of them end up passing.
The GOP proponents have signed on to a discharge petition, that, with the help of House Democrats, would require consideration of four immigration measures, including the most conservative proposal. The measures include a plan to provide border security in exchange for legalizing Dreamers and a measure that would legalize Dreamers without corresponding border security funding.
Ryan said none of the bills can become law.
“I think it’s futile to bring a discharge petition to the floor that has no chance of becoming law,” Ryan said.
Proponents of the effort say they are just five GOP signatures shy of the requirement and want the House to debate immigration reform, which has languished in Congress for years.
