Washington (CNN)House Republicans are bracing for a two-hour conference meeting Thursday morning on immigration, which could determine the fate of moderate members' efforts to force a vote on several immigration bills.

"I think a lot of it hangs on that meeting tomorrow," said Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, who has signed a House procedural maneuver -- known as a discharge petition -- that allows lawmakers to bypass leadership and force a vote on the floor if they can get a majority of members to sign on.

Ahead of that consequential gathering, the key leaders on the moderate and conservative sides of the issue were huddling with party leadership in Speaker Paul Ryan's effort in hopes of reaching a consensus that could be presented to their colleagues in the morning.

On their way to the Wednesday meeting and earlier in the day, negotiators expressed optimism but were still far apart on the issue of establishing citizenship for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

As it stands now, several moderate Republicans still considering the discharge petition have held off on signing it under the guise that leadership will be able to broker compromise immigration legislation between conservatives and moderates in the conference. But, if Thursday's or Wednesday's meetings don't go well, moderates may abandon the negotiating strategy and push forward with the discharge petition.

The petition is just three signatures away from the 218 needed to force the vote. On Wednesday, two Democrats signed it, meaning 192 of the House's 193 Democrats had done so (Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas is the sole Democratic hold out). That would leave two Republican signatures needed.

Moderates and conservatives continue to have genuine negotiations, but the key sticking points, which continue to largely be about citizenship for DACA recipients, have yet to be resolved.

Coming out of their regularly scheduled conference meeting Wednesday morning, Republicans shared varying levels of optimism that an immigration compromise that has alluded the conference for nearly a decade would come together by the end of the week.
"There are some colleagues who are willing to sign, but also want to give this negotiation a chance so I think number one, a lot of colleagues are going to be looking for an agreement and number two, observing and taking note of the disposition of the leading voices of this debate," Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Republican from Florida, told CNN. "A lot of our colleagues were extremely angry and frustrated that some members decided to take the farm bill hostage."

One key obstacle is whether members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus will be able to support a plan that would give DACA recipients a green card and eventually a path to citizenship. The Freedom Caucus met Tuesday night but multiple members said no consensus was reached. It was rather a discussion of various options. Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican who chairs the group, continued to say good talks were happening and the conference divides are "not as deep" as had been thought -- but that doesn't mean they're resolved.

The main members of the negotiations will meet with leadership Wednesday afternoon to try to put something "actually on paper," as discharge petition organizer Jeff Denham, a California Republican, put it. Then they will present that to the full conference Thursday morning at the immigration meeting.

"Obviously with any agreement you've got to see it in writing, and that's what we're looking forward to doing this afternoon."

Denham said if there is not an agreement, the discharge will get 218 signatures.
"We will know this week whether we have an agreement or not," Denham said. "More people will be signing on this week."

Asked by CNN if that meant Republicans or just members, Denham said, "Yes."
Curbelo told CNN later Wednesday that a deal may include some cuts on the legal immigration side, but that they would occur to set aside visas that could offset those going to DACA recipients.

"There's a discussion about reallocating visas" for DACA recipients, Curbelo said when asked about reports that a deal could include ending the diversity visa lottery and trimming family categories.

This is similar in theory to bipartisan compromises considered on the Senate side, making sure the overall number of legal immigrants did not go down but ending some visa categories to create more visas for others.


https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/polit...ion/index.html