Moderate Republicans are planning to file the required signatures on measure that will force the House to vote on immigration reform.
That is, unless House GOP leaders produce an immigration reform bill by Tuesday night that provides “Dreamers” with access to visas and a pathway to citizenship after eight years.
“I don’t think they’re going to get a discharge petition,” Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., told Politico Playbook at an event Tuesday morning. Scalise pointed to Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., as an indication it won’t move forward, saying Ross is not planning to sign the petition. “I’m very hopeful it won’t happen tonight.”
But moderates say they’ll move forward unless they get a firm commitment that the House will vote on the proposal they favor.
They haven’t received that yet.
“We want to see it in writing,” Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., an author of the discharge petition that is poised to force a vote on a series of alternative immigration reform measures if the GOP leadership doesn’t act.
Moderates have been waiting for an agreement in writing after days of negotiations inside Speaker Paul Ryan’s office last week.
The House was not in session on Monday and the next series of votes won’t happen until Tuesday evening. That’s when moderates plan to add the final three signatures to the discharge petition, which, with 218 signatures total, will trigger votes on several immigration proposals on June 25, according to the House rules.
Republican leaders want to avoid the discharge petition route, but have struggled to find an accord within the GOP conference on how to deal with the Dreamers, who came to the U.S. illegally as children.
Denham and moderates like the eight-year path to citizenship, but conservatives oppose it because they say it rewards illegal immigration with a special pathway to citizenship over legal immigrants.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who heads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told reporters last Friday they have not agreed to the provision Denham is seeking.
The group is set to meet again at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the office of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., according to a GOP aide.
Al Weaver contributed to this report.
