President Donald Trump's message didn't do anything but make the situation more difficult for Speaker Paul Ryan and his top lieutenants. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo GOP delays immigration vote in last-ditch push for passage Ryan is postponing a vote on a ‘compromise’ bill until next week, hoping that a bit more time will lead to a Republican consensus.

Speaker Paul Ryan surprised Capitol Hill on Thursday by delaying a vote on a “compromise“ immigration package until next week, as GOP leaders search for a way to get 218 votes to pass the measure.

Ryan told lawmakers that leadership may add an E-Verify mandate — an online system that allows employers to confirm the eligibility of employees to work in the United States — as well as other provisions called for by rural state lawmakers to the package.


Ryan's announcement came at the end of a two-hour meeting of House Republicans behind closed doors. Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) called the meeting to walk through the bill following complaints from the House Freedom Caucus and other immigration hardliners.

The move capped a politically charged week for Republicans on immigration. The crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border over the Trump administration's policy of separating families of immigrants who entered the country illegally caused an international uproar. President Donald Trump was forced to issue an executive order reversing the policy, but the administration and lawmakers in both parties still want Congress to take action.

With the family separation crisis dominating headlines, House Republicans were moving toward failed votes on several immigration measures, including legislation to address the plight of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers. The postponement gives Republicans a last chance to actually pass a bill, if the vote actually happens.

A vote on the “compromise” bill — the product of weeks of talks between GOP moderates, conservatives and leadership — was originally set for Thursday. It was then bumped until Friday. Republicans now plan to modify the bill again in a bid to win enough support to get it through the House in the face of unified Democratic opposition.

“There are some complicated issues we‘re working through," said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) following the GOP conference meeting. "We’re gonna keep working with our members. … We have a wide array of viewpoints and frankly everybody wants to solve this problem. I think that’s what’s been most encouraging.”

Behind the scenes, Scalise had been pressing for a delay in the vote, saying members needed more time to go through the package.

A more conservative immigration proposal authored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) failed on a 193-231 vote earlier Thursday.

While 41 Republicans voted against the Goodlatte bill, it garnered enough votes that conservatives argued it showed there was a potential path to passing some type of immigration legislation.

After Friday's meeting, a number of Republicans were hopeful that they could reach a consensus.

"I am more optimistic that we can get something done," said Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas).

Trump, who failed to strongly back the leadership-crafted bill in public, has been privately calling rank-and-file members to urge them to pass an immigration measure, according to GOP lawmakers and aides.

Inside the GOP Conference meeting, several moderates complained about the hard-line stance of the Freedom Caucus. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who has been pushing for some legislative solution to the Dreamers issue, warned members that even voting for the compromise bill may jeopardize his reelection bid this fall, as well as other members, said GOP sources.

GOP lawmakers also predicted that a dramatic expansion of the E-Verify program will be opposed by the business community.

But conservatives griped that leadership was moving too fast on the compromise bill for them.

“I think it is a mistake that leadership is rushing this bill to the floor today,” Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), one of the top negotiators of the measure, said before the first delay was announced. "I actually think with a little bit more conversation, we could actually get to an agreement on things."

Other members weren't so sure. Another conservative, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), complained that there was a "full-court press" devoted to whipping the compromise bill while the conservative bill was assumed to fail from the start.

The Goodlatte bill "just got 193 votes and none of that happened for it," Perry said in an interview. "You can imagine what might've happened with some small changes... and the full-court push from leadership and the administration on that original bill."

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The delay came hours after Trump publicly undercut House Republicans, asking why they were even bothering to vote on immigration legislation in the first place when it can't get through the Senate. Trump's message didn't do anything but make the situation more difficult for Ryan and his top lieutenants.

"What is the purpose of the House doing good immigration bills when you need 9 votes by Democrats in the Senate, and the Dems are only looking to Obstruct (which they feel is good for them in the Mid-Terms)," he tweeted Thursday.

House GOP leadership had been trying to get Trump to endorse the compromise bill. He even came to the Hill and promised them he was with them "1000 percent." Yet Trump failed to say he would only sign that legislation; Trump said he would support that measure or the more conservative Goodlatte bill.

Trump's failure to weigh in heavily for the compromise proposal emboldened conservatives to take a harder line on the compromise bill.

By moving ahead with a vote on the Goodlate bill, Ryan also effectively killed a discharge petition that moderate Republicans had been threatening to pursue with Democrats to force votes on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Now moderates don't even have that option to fall back on.

Earlier in the day, Ryan defended his decision to bring that bill and a more conservative proposal to the floor.

"We’re giving the members the ability to vote for the policy of their preference," Ryan told reporters Thursday morning. "The bills that are coming to the floor today are bills that if it got to [Trump's] desk he would sign it into law. Therefore it is a legitimate exercise."

But neither bill was expected to survive a House floor vote, much less make it to Trump — providing a damaging blow to an already weakened lame-duck speaker. Ryan's team has downplayed the possibility of passing anything, and the Wisconsin Republican has long maintained that any solution for Dreamers would likely have to be bipartisan.

The failure of the House to pass any immigration legislation would be a setback for Trump, who pitched himself to voters as the world’s greatest dealmaker. Not only does the exercise make the president look weak, the collapse of the bill will undercut his message of blaming Democrats for problems at the border. Republicans can’t get on the same page themselves.

Time and again in his dealings with Congress, and especially with Republicans, Trump has shown that he doesn’t know how to close deals on legislation. At crucial times, he hasn’t been able to move votes, due in part to his failure or unwillingness to grasp the intricacies of legislation and policy.

Trump can attack Republicans in Congress, he can confuse them, and he can scare them, but he often can’t make them vote how he wants.

The action Thursday came a day after tensions between leaders, conservatives and moderates boiled over on the House floor, with House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows accusing Ryan of lying to him about what provisions the House would be voting on.

Both sides later chalked up the run-in as a misunderstanding, but ill will lingers among Republicans.

Conservatives are disappointed by Trump’s inability to sell the compromise bill and are therefore wary of voting “yes.” The package includes a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and some other types of immigrants, devised by Labrador.

But conservatives didn’t like the final product. It would significantly curb family migration, end the diversity visa lottery program and appropriate $25 billion for a border wall but lacked E-Verify requirements.

Whatever the compromise bill’s ultimate fate, it won’t be the end of the immigration debate in Congress. Capitol Hill is still likely going to have to step in to address Trump’s “zero tolerance“ policy, which led to splitting up migrant families at the border.

The White House on Wednesday announced an executive order to stop the gut-wrenching separations. And Customs and Border Protection said it was in the process of reuniting children in its custody with parents or guardians following prosecution, though it’s unclear if or when the government will be able to reunify the more than 2,300 children already separated from their parents.

But as Nielsen told Republicans on Wednesday, the stay is only temporary. Republicans must act to address the issue, she said.

Senate Republicans are already crafting legislation to stop the policy, though according to one person familiar with Trump’s thinking, the president is not yet on board with a narrow fix. House Republicans have tucked their own solution into their compromise bill.

Ryan on Thursday wouldn't commit to bringing up a standalone bill to address family separations.

"If these bills do not pass today then we will cross that bridge when we get to it," he said. "But the last thing I want to do right now is undercut the votes that we’re about to have."

Ted Hesson and Matthew Nussbaum contributed to this report.