Paul Ryan’s Amnesty Bill Fails — Far Fewer Votes than Goodlatte’s

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Sean Moran

The Paul Ryan amnesty bill failed to pass through the House on Wednesday and garnered fewer votes than the Trump-endorsed Goodlatte immigration bill.

The House failed to pass the Ryan amnesty bill, otherwise known as the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act (H.R. 6136), with a vote tally of 301 against the bill and 121 for the amnesty bill. At least 111 Republicans voted against the Ryan amnesty legislation. No Democrats voted for the legislation.

Breitbart News reported that the Ryan amnesty bill could become the largest amnesty bill in American history. Rosemary Jenks, a NumbersUSA government affairs director, noted that the bill would grant amnesty to nearly 3.5 million Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) illegal aliens. The Ryan bill would grant amnesty to illegal aliens first and then eventually build a wall on America’s southern border.

President Donald Trump urged Republicans to vote for Speaker Ryan’s amnesty bill in a tweet on Wednesday morning, saying in all caps, “HOUSE REPUBLICANS SHOULD PASS THE STRONG BUT FAIR IMMIGRATION BILL, KNOWN AS GOODLATTE II.”

“EVEN THOUGH THE DEMS WON’T LET IT PASS IN THE SENATE,” Trump added. “PASSAGE WILL SHOW THAT WE WANT STRONG BORDERS & SECURITY WHILE THE DEMS WANT OPEN BORDERS = CRIME. WIN!”

The House nearly passed the Goodlatte immigration, also known as Securing America’s Future Act, with 193 votes for the bill and 231 against the legislation. Forty-one Republicans voted against the immigration bill, and no Democrats voted for it. The Goodlatte received an enormous amount of support despite little lobbying and whip support from House Republican leadership.

Former Freedom Caucus chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said this week that the Goodlatte bill “would’ve passed” if Speaker Paul Ryan actually lobbied for the bill.

In a June interview with Breitbart News, Jordan said that the Ryan amnesty bill is inconsistent with the 2016 Trump election mandate.

Jordan explained why conservatives support the Goodlatte immigration bill, saying:

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 Ohio conservative continued, explaining some of the problems with the Ryan amnesty bill:

The Speaker’s legislation does not deal with sanctuary cities, doesn’t have E-Verify, and frankly doesn’t deal with the chain migration issue in the thorough way that I think it should be dealt with in Chairman Goodlatte’s legislation. It also says that the DACA population is expanded from those who just signed up for the DACA deferred action back when President Obama issued the executive order. … It has some good things in it but I don’t think it’s consistent with the full mandate that we told the American people we were going to do if they made Donald Trump and put Republicans in control of the House and the Senate.

Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) told Breitbart News in an interview last week that Ryan amnesty bill “has far less support” than the Goodlatte bill.

President Trump endorsed the Goodlatte bill as his ideal immigration legislation in January. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Raul Labrador (R-ID), and Martha McSally (R-AZ) wrote the Securing America’s Future Act. Trump called the legislation, a “bill of love.” The legislation would fund a southern border wall, end chain migration, end the diversity lottery, and raise Americans’ wages.

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