Goodlatte Immigration Bill Fails to Pass Through House

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

The House of Representatives failed to pass the Donald Trump-endorsed Goodlatte immigration reform bill on Thursday.

The House failed to pass H.R. 4760, the “Securing America’s Future Act,” with a vote tally of 193-231. Forty-one Republicans voted against the immigration bill and no Democrats voted for it.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) sponsored the legislation. The House Freedom Caucus has lobbied House Republican leadership for months to vote on the measure. The Goodlatte bill, which is more conservative than the Ryan-sponsored immigration bill, received 193 votes despite little lobbying and whip support from House Republican leadership.

At a press conference earlier on Thursday, the House Freedom Caucus decried the House leadership’s “broken” promises that fast-tracked the vote for an amnesty bill pushed by Speaker Paul Ryan while ignoring the Goodlatte bill.

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) said that the leadership’s push for the Ryan amnesty bill compared to the Goodlatte bill is “exactly what’s broken with Congress.” The Idado conservative said that the Goodlatte bill “should have been pushed.”

Labrador continued, suggesting that the “leadership team that decided that a committee was not wise enough to get 218” votes to pass through the House. Labrador said that the leadership “meddled with the bill.”

Former Freedom Caucus chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) that the House Judiciary Committee “did not get to vote in the committee.” Jordan contended that the Goodlatte bill would have “passed unanimously.”

Jordan told Breitbart News in an interview earlier this week why conservatives support the Goodlatte bill. Jordan said:

It’s the one that done with what’s consistent with the election. It says it will build the border security wall, end chain migration, stop the visa lottery, deal with sanctuary cities, reform the asylum law — right down the list of everything we know needs to happen and move to a merit-based [immigration system] and then we will deal with the DACA population.

The House will likely vote on the Ryan amnesty bill on Friday. In contrast, Jordan said that the Ryan bill is inconsistent with the 2016 Trump election mandate.

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