Conservatives Urge Paul Ryan to Bring Hard-Right Border Enforcement Bill to the Floor – By Kelcey Caulder (ijr.com) / Jan 23 2018
After what they perceive as a Republican victory in the three-day government shutdown, conservative lawmakers are urging House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to bring a tough, hard-right border enforcement bill to the floor, The Hill reported Tuesday.
The Securing America’s Future Act, crafted by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), would look very different from more bipartisan plans proposed by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in the Senate.
Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, called Schumer’s legislative proposals “extremist” and implied the House would not pass them.
“Schumer is once again overplaying his hand on immigration, trying to paint his ‘solution’ as a foregone conclusion. The reality on the ground is that his extremist proposals are a non-starter in the House,” Walker told The Hill.
“We have a workable path forward with the Goodlatte/McCaul bill and that’s the bar set in the House.”
According to The Hill report, the Republican legislation would provide Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients with a three-year temporary legal status that could be renewed indefinitely. It would not outline a path to citizenship, however.
The Goodlatte bill would authorize $30 billion to build President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall and fund other border security measures, end chain immigration and eliminate the diversity visa lottery program.
It would also put in place a system allowing the Justice Department to withhold grants from sanctuary cities and increase criminal penalties for deported criminals who return to the U.S. illegally.
Many within the House recognize the bill would likely not be supported by Democrats in both the House and the Senate, some of whom believe Republican lawmakers are angling to “end legal immigration” to the U.S. entirely.
“My leadership is going to have to accept the reality that there may not be a majority of the majority to support a bipartisan DACA-border security deal,” Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) told reporters, according to The Hill.
“This idea of doing a Republican-only DACA bill is a fantasy. It’s a complete exercise in futility, because it has zero chance of passing the Senate — and near-zero chance of passing the House.”
https://ijr.com/2018/01/1054446-conservative-border-bill/
PB/TK – Do the GOP’ers have the people’s confidence with a hard right turn or is it pushing too soon?
