While Trump, Kim, Cohen, Pruitt and other scum have been grabbing all the headlines, a move to get immigration bill(s) to the House floor has been percolating behind the scenes.
It started out a few weeks back when a bipartisan group of Democrats and moderate Republicans in the House started circulating a Discharge Petition to get immigration bill(s) to the floor (a Discharge Petition is a means to get a bill, or bills, to the floor for a vote by getting 218 or more Representative signatures, a majority of the House). It was an attempt to do an end run around Speaker Ryan who was blocking all immigration legislation. The idea of the petition was to get four (4) bills to the floor for voting which ranged from a comprehensive hard-line conservative bill on the right to a comprehensive progressive bill on the left, and two scaled down moderate bills in-between, with the bill getting the most votes advancing to the Senate. This wasn’t a bad deal for Democrats since it was likely that a coalition of all Democrats and some moderate Republicans could have passed one of the scaled down bills that would have at least protected DACA recipients (Dreamers).
But seeing that he may get over-ruled by a Discharge Petition, Ryan started hinting that he may be inclined to allow some immigration legislation on the floor. As a result, the Petition which had the support of House Democrats and some moderate Republicans fell a few signatures short of the 218 and has been tabled.
Instead it appears Speaker Ryan is about to allow two (2) bills to come to the House floor for a vote. One is a hard-line conservative measure sponsored by Representative Goodlate (R) and the other is a scaled down “moderate” bill sponsored by Representative Collins (R). The Goodlate bill has zero chance of passage since it will be opposed by all Democrats and moderate Republicans. But the Collins bill is more complicated in terms of Congressional math. BTW, Ryan claims Trump supports both bills (at least until Trump changes his mind).
Although the text of the Collin’s bill is not out yet, it reportedly contains protection for Dreamers but may not include a path to citizenship. It also includes hard-line elements such as more money for border security measures like a wall, curbs family migration, and ends the diversity visa lottery program. It also doesn’t appear to contain anything to stop Trump’s inhumane policy of taking immigrant children away from their parents and locking them in cages.
The hard-line elements in the Collin’s bill are designed to attract Freedom Caucus members, and according to this Huff Post Article (which I encourage you to read since it contains some interesting behind the scenes details), it just might get some Freedom Caucus votes.
But the Collin’s Bill is sort of a Poison Pill for Democrats in that it may put some in an awkward position. The good news is House Democrats basically get to decide the fate of the Collin’s bill, since without some Dems. it is unlikely the bill will get enough Republican votes to pass, even if some Freedom Caucus members vote yes. But that’s also the bad news.
If House Dems. all support this bill, they will, in effect be voting for the hard-line elements that they and we Progressives oppose, and only get some unclear protections for DACA folks. However, if House Dems. all vote “no”, Republicans will try to brand Democrats as opposing protections for DACA recipients and that they are only interested in keeping DACA as a campaign issue for the Fall. Republicans will say we don’t care about protecting Dreamers and only want to use them as a political weapon.
My Progressive gut tells me Dems. should vote “no”, but looking at the bigger more important picture being the taking control of the House this Fall, it could be a Poison Pill no matter which way Dems. vote. The best course of action may be to allow individual Dem. members to make their own decision on how to vote based on the political calculus of their home District. What do you think?