GOP compromise immigration bill fails in House
After two delays, the GOP compromise bill has failed in the house amid ongoing speculation on Capitol Hill that the measure would not pass. The Border Security and Immigration Reform Act, negotiated by both moderates and conservatives amid pressure for Congress to finally provide a legislative fix to the country's immigration problems, failed by a large margin of 121 "yes" votes to 301 "no" votes on Wednesday.
The measure aimed to create a new merit-based visa program, appropriate $25 billion for border security, and sought to end family separation at the border by allowing children to remain in DHS custody for longer than 20 days and mandating that their parents be held in DHS custody rather than DOJ custody if they are being prosecuted for border crossing. It also allocated money for family detention centers.
House leaders had twice delayed a vote on the bill, which was initially set for last Thursday. While Republicans sought to gain more support for the bill this past week, President Trump never publicly expressed his support of the measure until Wednesday, despite pressuring members to throw their support behind it in closed-door meetings.
Last week he even tweeted urging the House to "stop wasting their time" on an immigration bill until after the midterm elections.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS SHOULD PASS THE STRONG BUT FAIR IMMIGRATION BILL, KNOWN AS GOODLATTE II, IN THEIR AFTERNOON VOTE TODAY, EVEN THOUGH THE DEMS WON’T LET IT PASS IN THE SENATE. PASSAGE WILL SHOW THAT WE WANT STRONG BORDERS & SECURITY WHILE THE DEMS WANT OPEN BORDERS = CRIME. WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2018
Early Wednesday morning, however, he tweeted in a last ditch effort, in all caps, that Republicans should pass the "strong but fair immigration bill" and that passage would show "we want strong borders and security while the Dems want open borders = crime."
After Wednesday's failure in the House, it is unlikely that the House will now move to take up a narrow bill dealing with family separation before they leave tomorrow afternoon for a weeklong recess, according to multiple congressional aides. Members are still working with the White House to figure out what exactly the president would sign. That is not clear right now.
CBS News' Rebecca Kaplan contributed to this report.
This is a developing story.