WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Republican efforts to reach agreement on immigration legislation (all times local):
10 a.m.
Divided on immigration, House Republicans are huddling privately as leaders try pushing them toward consensus on the issue. The leaders are racing the clock and trying to defuse a civil war within the party that could hurt them in November’s elections.
GOP lawmakers were meeting Thursday morning in the Capitol basement. A day earlier, some said they expected House Speaker Paul Ryan to suggest ideas for ending the standoff between moderates who want a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers” brought into the U.S. illegally as children, and conservatives opposed to that idea.
There have been no indications that a compromise is at hand.
Without agreement, moderates seeking to force election-season votes on the issue will gain momentum. They are close to gaining enough signatures on a petition to force immigration votes later this month.
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12:25 a.m.
House leaders want to push fractured Republicans toward consensus on immigration, racing the clock as they seek to defuse a GOP civil war threatening to wound their hopes for keeping control in November’s elections.
Republicans plan a closed-door meeting on the topic for Thursday morning. But there are no indications that a deal ending the party’s internal struggle over immigration is at hand and no definitive detail of where middle ground might be.
If leaders fail to find a solution, that would give momentum to moderates seeking to stage election-year votes in just three weeks on the issue, a showdown that leaders want to head off.
The major hang-up in GOP talks has been how to offer citizenship to young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
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