Congress Immigration

House Republicans Can’t Pass Their Own Immigration Bills

Written by SK Ashby

We can't pat ourselves on the back for predicting this because House Republican can hardly pass anything at all, but it looks their two immigration bills are both going to fail.

House Republicans are (were?) going to hold a vote on a hardline immigration bill and a more "moderate" immigration bill, but House leaders say they don't have the votes for either of them.

From Politico:

After laboring to strike a deal between moderate Republicans from swing districts and immigration hawks wary of being accused of supporting “amnesty,” GOP leaders say they still don’t have the votes. [...]

Some Republicans are predicting that a rival bill authored by immigration hard-liners could garner as many votes as the compromise package, a result that would embarrass leaders who've dismissed the proposal.

The expected failure of both measures is also a setback for Trump, who pitched himself to voters as the world’s greatest dealmaker.

Speaker Paul Ryan held an impromptu press briefing this morning where he attacked Democrats for refusing to support either of the GOP's terrible bills in what was clearly an attempt to save face.

For his part, Trump attacked Senate Democrats and called on Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to eliminate the filibuster, but where things stand right now it wouldn't matter. Senate Democrats can't filibuster a bill that never makes it out of the House in the first place.

I'm not convinced Senate Republicans could pass an immigration bill even with a simple majority and no filibuster.

Update... House Republicans have delayed the vote on their "moderate" bill until tomorrow. Don't be surprised if it's called off entirely.