The left and right flanks of the House Republican conference have cornered the leadership on immigration reform and are forcing the chamber to take on a issue that leaders have sought to avoid for more than a decade.
Conservatives seeking a deal on immigration reform legislation blocked passage of a major farm policy authorization bill Friday in an embarrassing blow to the Republican leadership. They helped kill the bill after saying they would only support it if Speaker Paul Ryan and other GOP leaders to first work harder to find an immigration bill that can pass the House with mostly GOP support.
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“There is growing pressure on the leadership to put some immigration bill on the floor and have a real debate,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. “To have a real debate, a real vote and figure out where everybody is on immigration.”
A smaller and more moderate GOP faction is also trying to force a vote on immigration. They have collected nearly enough signatures on a discharge petition that would require the House to consider several immigration reform measures at once.
“We ought to have a full debate in front of the American public,” said Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., a co-author of the discharge petition. “Doing nothing is not an answer.”
Ryan, R-Wis., and other GOP leaders say they have so far been unable to come up with a bill that can win enough votes to pass the House, clear the Senate, and get signed by President Trump.
Republicans and Democrats have long struggled to find common ground on immigration reform. The House has avoided voting on legislation, while the Senate has tried but mostly failed to pass anything, most recently in March when they defeated four different proposals.
“What we’re trying to do is work with our members to address our members’ concerns and have a process that could actually get law,” Ryan said.
But frustrated conservatives say GOP leaders are not trying hard enough and now, the moderate and conservative factions may circumvent leadership altogether and come up with their own solution.
“It is time we make some decisions,” Meadows said.
Meadows has been meeting with moderate Republicans to write an immigration reform legislation the two factions can agree upon. He and Denham huddled for 90 minutes on Thursday and plan to meet again.
Meadows has met with several other moderate GOP lawmakers on immigration and even talked to a few Democrats. The different factions “are getting close” to an agreement according to the Meadows camp.
But a final deal could take days, weeks, or even months, say those familiar with the talks.
Denham backs a narrow immigration reform bill that would legalize so-called Dreamers who came to the U.S. illegally as children. The bill would include border security funding, but nothing else to reform immigration.
Conservatives support a measure more closely aligned with one authored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., which would legalize Dreamers but also implement significant reforms to stem illegal immigration and lower the number of legal immigrants.
The discharge petition that moderate Republicans and Democrats support would call up the Denham and Goodlatte proposals, as well as a Democratic proposal to simply legalize Dreamers. Conservatives are trying to convince moderate Republicans to hold back on the discharge petition and work with them on a compromise plan.
In the meantime, conservatives say they can continue to hold the farm bill authorization measure hostage, because the current farm policy law does not expire until October.
Friday’s farm bill defeat was not a fatal blow, but rather a delay aimed at finding consensus on immigration reform, which many farmers are also eager to resolve because so many of their workers are immigrants, conservatives said.
“The two issues directly relate in terms of how they are able to do business,” a GOP aide said.
The GOP battle over immigration has been complicated by Ryan’s decision to retire next year. His departure announcement has set off an early scramble to succeed him and has put pressure on Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to ensure he has the backing of conservatives who he would need to win the speaker’s gavel if the GOP maintains the majority.
Ryan’s announcement also weakened him and emboldened the Freedom Caucus. One of the leaders of the Farm Bill revolt is Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a Freedom Caucus founder who might run for speaker himself.
Jordan may not have the votes to win, but he’s positioning himself for a bigger role in the GOP conference next year by taking on immigration reform.
“The mandate of the 2016 election was to deal with immigration the right way, one where we actually build the border security wall, do the kind of things we’ve got to do,” Jordan said Friday.
