House Republican leaders have just one week—four days on congressional time—to act on immigration before lawmakers leave town for the week-long Fourth of July recess. Lawmakers are dealing with a duel set of crises created entirely by popular vote loser Donald Trump, the Dreamer crisis he manufactured by end protections for young people under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program and his new horror, baby stealing. They are still negotiating a larger immigration package while also considering separate legislation to do something as yet undefined for families being separated at the border.
Republican lawmakers spent the weekend on conference calls trying to find a larger immigration package that a majority of Republicans would support. As of now, says Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) the hard-line Freedom Caucus guy who has apparently taken over negotiations after the total capitulation of the supposed "moderates" in the conference, a bill addressing DACA would "fail right now." So DACA could be out the window in whatever bill the House is now scheduled to vote on Tuesday evening, having postponed it twice last week.
Whether anything comes to the floor this week could largely depend on Trump, who derailed last week's votes with a series of contradictory statements and tweets, going back and forth between assuring lawmakers that he was "1,000 percent" behind them and would sign their compromise bill to tweeting that "Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration." Every tweet—even the possibility of a tweet—has Republicans ready to bail on doing anything. That's got Republicans making vague complaints, but as of yet refusing to stand up to him.
"I think that the best way to pass legislation is to consistently support a position and help move it forward," Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, a senior House Republican. Asked if Trump was doing that, Walden pivoted toward a door and said: "I'll leave it at that."
Leadership is reportedly still tweaking that so-called compromise bill, the one that endangered Republicans sold out on already. To try to go gain farm-state votes, they might ease restrictions on seasonal farm workers. To balance that out and not lose hard-line votes, they might add in provisions toughening up employers' requirements for verifying their workers' citizenship—which would lose moderates.
What the House is going to do this week remains a mystery. Do they give up on any kind of larger bill and jettison the Dreamers? Do they do anything about the ongoing horror of family separation? Do they vote on anything? We don't know because they don't know. But something will probably happen, says Majority Leader and would-be Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), because "I think it's important that the House be able to show we can take the action." At this rate, they might even be able to pass that low bar.
Help unseat House Republican maniacs with your $1 contribution to our candidates.