Watch live: House debates and votes on immigration bill

USA TODAY

The House is scheduled to vote Thursday and Friday on two competing proposals for a sweeping overhaul of the immigration system: A hard-line proposal favored by conservatives, which would essentially enshrine the family separation policy into law, and a compromise bill put forward by House Speaker Paul Ryan that would seek to end the separations.

The more conservative bill, written by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and other immigration hawks, would provide legal protections, but not citizenship, to about about 700,000 "Dreamers." It would also fund Trump's border wall and require employers to use the "e-verify" system to make sure their employees are legally allowed to work in the U.S.

This measure was voted down in the House, 193-231 on Thursday afternoon.

The compromise bill is intended to bridge the divide between conservatives like North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, and moderate Republicans who want legal protections for the "Dreamers," undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

“The compromise bill is not ready for prime time today,” Meadows told reporters on Wednesday. "The talking points do not match the legislative text."

Early Thursday afternoon, House Speaker Paul Ryan decided to postpone the vote on the compromise bill until Friday, June 22nd, in order to garner more conference support for the measure.

Both bills hit the House floor shortly after President Trump signed an executive order to end the family separations that had become the public face of his administration's 'zero-tolerance' policy aimed at prosecuting all illegal border crossings.

Democrats are expected to oppose both GOP bills. It is not clear if Ryan's compromise bill has the votes.