The immigration compromise the House plans to vote on Wednesday would provide the biggest amnesty ever, turning 2.2 million undocumented and illegal immigrants into citizens, according to a new analysis of the package from House Speaker Paul Ryan.

“If the bill were enacted it would be the largest amnesty in more than 30 years, despite President Trump's campaign promise of ‘no amnesty’ and after multiple GOP congressional leaders expressed opposition to amnesty for any illegal aliens,” according to Jessica M. Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies.





Vaughan, who testifies before Congress often on immigration issues, did the math on how expansive the bill would be granting amnesty to a group larger than the population of Houston, Texas. She wrote:

It would potentially provide amnesty and a path to citizenship for well over two million direct beneficiaries over 15 years. They would include not only the 700,000 current recipients of President Obama's controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but also an additional 1.2 million illegal aliens who allegedly qualify for DACA but did not apply, plus as many as 300,000 adults who originally arrived with their parents on temporary guest worker visas.

Opposition to the legislation, coupled with mixed signals of support from the White House, have led to many predictions that it will fail in today’s vote.

Vaughan suggested breaking up the big bill, or making it look more like another package from Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee which tackled chain migration, opposed by the president.

In her analysis, she said:

Most legal immigrants come via family-based chain migration. Unlike the Goodlatte bill, which came close to passing last week, with 193 votes, the Ryan bill would preserve the largest chain migration categories (such as the parents of naturalized citizens, including those of "Dream" amnesty beneficiaries) while transferring numbers from several smaller chain migration categories to other uses, thereby maintaining at least the same total number of green cards for the foreseeable future.