On Thursday, Congressional Republicans struggled to agree about immigration legislation that a vote could be taken on before the midterm elections in November. Party members disagreed on several key issues, including the fate of Dreamers, the young undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as minors.
Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, convened the meeting for 235 Republicans behind closed doors. He offered a variety of different options but not firm proposals, according to the lawmakers who attended. Following the meeting, Ryan hosted a news conference in which he told reporters that putting pen to paper would be the next step before the full House could be presented with legislation while offering no sign about when that might happen.
But, some Republican centrists offered a potential timeline as they continue to push a rare procedure to try to force the House to vote on immigration legislation against the Speaker’s wishes, including a bill that primarily has support from Democrats. The leader of the rebels, Representative Jeff Denham, says if leadership has not produced a new immigration bill by next Tuesday, the discharge petition will be put in motion.
Representative, Mark King, chair of the Freedom Caucus, an influential group of Republicans on the hard-right of the party, says the meeting did not achieve any consensus and that nothing was hammered out, with difficult issues, including the projections that should be offered Dreamers and if they should have the chance to eventually gain US citizenship.