The two bills would likely be merged together before the bill goes to the Senate. House GOP in border-crisis chaos

House Republicans will vote to rein in the Obama administration’s power to halt deportation for undocumented immigrants — a surprise move that comes as they struggle to attract support for their bill to address the crisis at the border.

The new plan, described by multiple GOP aides Wednesday evening, comes as House Republicans were unable to lock up 218 GOP lawmakers to vote for the $659 million emergency funding package.


On Wednesday evening, House GOP leadership was setting up a process that would schedule a Thursday vote on the Republican funding package. If it passes, the House would be required to vote on legislation targeting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has shielded from deportation hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who have grown up in the United States.

( Also on POLITICO: House votes to sue Obama)

The House GOP language would block President Barack Obama from expanding DACA and prevent him from granting a similar reprieve to other immigrants here illegally. The administration is actively considering executive action on deportations, and a final decision is expected by the end of the summer.

The latest twist from Republican leadership is a way to appeal to conservative Republicans, who want a vote to prevent the Obama administration from halting deportations. But a vote will only come after the House passes the other legislation.

The Senate, meanwhile, is struggling to pass its border legislation. It scrambled to clear even just a simple procedural vote earlier Wednesday, and the funding measure drafted by Senate Democrats has already lost the support of three of its own members.

The new House GOP strategy will give Democrats and Republicans a chance to vote separately on both bills. It’s not yet clear how Democrats and Republicans will react to the strategy.

( Also on POLITICO: Senate advances border bill)

The new House GOP tack takes a page from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who had demanded a ban on expanding DACA in exchange for emergency funding to deal with the border crisis. He criticized the House Republican proposal in a statement earlier this week because it did not include language dealing with what Cruz called “Obama’s amnesty.”

Cruz huddled with a smattering of House conservatives in his office Wednesday evening — over pizza and drinks — to discuss the latest developments on the border crisis. He told reporters that he was “encouraged,” particularly after hearing that the House may vote to roll back DACA.

“That is the right thing to do,” Cruz said.

Emerging from the meeting with Cruz, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) cast doubt that the initial $659 million border supplemental would pass, particularly if it had to rely solely on GOP votes.

( Also on POLITICO: Begich blasts Reid on amendments)

“There is support for the DACA fix,” Bachmann said. “I think you will see the DACA-fix bill pass.”

Even with the new DACA strategy, some conservatives Wednesday still weren’t satisfied. For instance, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said the measures still don’t provide adequate border security. And Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is demanding tougher asylum language.

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Expected Democratic support is already weak. Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota said in an interview he would vote for the bill, because he believes a 2008 anti-trafficking law that has come under close scrutiny during the border crisis needs to be revised.

Still, an overwhelming majority of House Democrats were expected to reject the House Republicans’ border supplemental if it had come to the floor for a vote Thursday.

“This is what happens when you wait more than 380 days to pass a bipartisan bill to fix the broken immigration system,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said when told of the DACA news Wednesday evening.

“Republicans have now boxed themselves into a trap where they are now having a fight between their far right and their far, far right,” he continued. “And as a result, they can’t get anything done and the shutdown, do-nothing politics has come back to bite them.”

And any measures rolling back DACA will be dead on arrival in the Democratic-led Senate. When asked for a response to the House GOP decision to add DACA into the mix, Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), replied: “Speaker Cruz is in the house.”

Time is of the essence. The House will leave town Thursday afternoon for a month-long August recess.

The struggles come as Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise makes his debut in the House Republican leadership. Although Scalise doesn’t officially become whip until Thursday, he has been involved in trying to build support for this legislation, and his allies have discussed how his tactics were better than Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is the outgoing whip and incoming majority leader.

New York Rep. Louise Slaughter, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, hinted at some troubles Wednesday evening when she told reporters that the “last thing I heard as I left the floor is that they have no agreement, whatsoever.”

Legislation must clear the Rules panel before it can come to the House floor.

“As a matter of fact, it’s a bit troubled piece of legislation,” she said. “We may be here most of the night trying to come to some conclusion thereon.”

Republicans have largely pointed to the deportation directive from Obama — announced in June 2012, in the middle of his reelection bid — as the culprit behind the stunning influx of unaccompanied minors arriving at the Southwestern border this year. They believe it sends a message that if the migrant children come, they will be accepted legally into the United States — although DACA requires that undocumented immigrants have entered the United States before June 15, 2007.

In fiscal 2013, which began Oct. 1, 2012, nearly 28,000 unaccompanied minors were apprehended at the Southern border, and that figure has jumped to more than 57,000 during this fiscal year.

And a vote targeting the deferred action program, popular with Latinos, could put in a tough position Republican lawmakers who are running in races where the Hispanic vote could play a pivotal role.

The Republican-led House voted on a similar measure last year — an amendment that would defund DACA as part of the spending bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security. Six House Republicans voted against that measure — Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, Spencer Bachus of Alabama, Michael Grimm of New York, and Devin Nunes, Jeff Denham and David Valadao, all of California.