Paul Ryan announces two immigration votes, halts rogue effort to force DACA issue

Eliza Collins | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption American dream on hold for DACA recipients American dream on hold for DACA recipients Video provided by AFP

WASHINGTON — Speaker Paul Ryan announced Tuesday night the House will consider two immigration bills next week to halt a bipartisan effort designed to force a series of votes on the divisive issue.

It is the first time the House will take up legislation to protect undocumented immigrants that came to the U.S. as children, known as DREAMers.

Ryan's announcement means GOP leadership has avoided an embarrassing defeat by rogue moderates of their party and every House Democrat. On Tuesday, the bipartisan group was just two signatures away from putting into a play a rare maneuver — known as a discharge petition — to go around the speaker and bring legislation to the floor

But the decision was far from a win for Ryan and his gang who failed to mend the party’s deep divides on the issue despite frequent meetings they insisted were moving in a positive direction.

“Members across the Republican Conference have negotiated directly and in good faith with each other for several weeks, and as a result, the House will consider two bills next week that will avert the discharge petition and resolve the border security and immigration issues," AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, R-Wis., said in a statement. Strong said more details would be released after the party met Wednesday morning.

Ryan had been hosting frequent meetings between the party's conservative and moderate factions trying to bring them together on legislation that could pass with just Republican votes. But as of Tuesday night no compromise had been announced. Instead, the House will vote on two competing bills.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., who was one of the moderates simultaneously negotiating with the party and pushing the discharge petition, called Ryan's announcement "a major development." But, Curbelo cautioned, "unless we confirm the proposed legislation fully addresses the interests and concerns that unite us we must and will keep up the pressure." Curbelo urged lawmakers to remain committed to the discharge petition.

However, because of complicated House rules, lawmakers needed to get the required signatures by Tuesday for the discharge petition to be brought up this month. While it is possible the discharge petition could be launched next month, lawmakers lost their chance Tuesday to bring it up in June.

The discharge petition is a rarely successful maneuver that allows a bill to reach the floor of the House even if it hasn't been approved by a committee, or scheduled for a vote by the speaker. If a majority of House members sign on to the discharge petition, it bypasses the committee process and goes straight to the House floor. It is particularly unusual for a discharge petition to be initiated by members of the majority party.

The discharge petition was first put on the floor in early May and got the majority of its support last month, but the final handful of Republicans waited to sign on to give time to GOP leaders to find a compromise within the party. The last Democratic holdout signed on Tuesday night leaving just two empty spots for GOP lawmakers.

Ryan is used to having to wrangle members from the far-right of his party, but the moderate Republicans who joined with Democrats to force the immigration vote represented a new — and embarrassing — challenge for the outgoing speaker. Ryan and the rest of his leadership team have been vocal about their disdain for the discharge petition and believed it could damage their chances of holding onto the House come November.

Pelosi responded to Ryan's announcement Tuesday night on Twitter.

"Protecting #Dreamers stands on its own merits. If Republicans plan to use Dreamers as a way to advance ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩’s xenophobic, anti-immigrant agenda, they will get a fight from House Democrats," she tweeted.

More: Who are the DACA DREAMers and how many are here?

More: Exclusive: Immigration dominates GOP candidates' TV ads in House contests across the country

This discharge petition included a “Queen of the Hill” process that required votes on four different DACA proposals and stated that the one receiving the most votes would pass.

The discharge petition was launched by moderate Republicans including Curbelo, Jeff Denham of California and Will Hurd of Texas in May. All three participated in the intraparty negotiations, while they made clear they would continue to move ahead with the discharge petition if a compromise was not reached. Despite pleas from GOP leadership to stay away, Republican members continued to sign on. Late last week, Democrats joined the 20 Republicans in bulk, putting the petition close enough to make conservatives nervous.

Members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus demanded last month that leadership put the so-called Goodlatte bill on the floor before a vote on the unrelated farm bill.

That conservative legislation was sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. It sought to cut legal immigration, strengthen border security and provide temporary legal status on a renewable basis. The president had thrown his support behind that bill, but the temporary protections and drastic cuts to legal immigration left that measure with no support from Democrats and opposition from some Republicans.

GOP leadership said that they’d bring that bill to the floor in June but Freedom Caucus members determined that wasn’t soon enough and withheld votes last week to sink the farm bill, despite supporting the content of the bill.

Nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children have been in limbo ever since President Trump ended the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last fall. The president gave Congress until March to find a solution but lawmakers remained frozen on the issue. The Senate had a series of failed votes in February and the House did not bring any DACA-related legislation the floor. Federal courts have forced the administration to keep the program running, setting up a possible Supreme Court showdown later this year.

More: New 'zero tolerance' policy on border creates overflow court hearings in South Texas

More: All the ways President Trump is cutting legal immigration

More: 'Why are you taking him?': Trauma lingers from 'zero tolerance' immigration policy that separates parents, kids

More: Jeff Sessions: No asylum for victims of domestic abuse, gang violence

More: DREAMer was killed weeks after being 'escorted' back to Mexico by ICE

Contributing: Deborah Barfield Berry, Herb Jackson, and Alan Gomez.