W.Va. — Congressional Republicans arrived here Wednesday for their annual retreat dogged by internal divisions over immigration — and seemingly intent on avoiding the issue altogether.

The schedule for the three-day gathering at a luxury 11,000 acre-resort in the Appalachians does not include a single session on immigration. This despite a deadline barely a month away to extend protections to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants facing deportation — and the logjam that dilemma has caused for Republican priorities like boosting defense spending.


It's hard to see where an immigration compromise might lie.

The White House proposed giving 1.8 million Dreamers a pathway to citizenship in exchange for a border wall with Mexico and several conservative immigration policy changes. But while Senate Republicans believe the plan tacks too far to the right, saying its steep cuts to legal immigration will never win over Democrats, many immigration hawks in the House have dismissed Trump’s pitch as “amnesty.”

“I don’t think [Americans] want amnesty or anything that looks like amnesty encouraging people to come here illegally,” said Freedom Caucus conservative Scott Perry (R-Pa.). “[T]he White House proposal is not what they think they signed up for. It’s not what I signed up for.”

In the House, conservatives are pushing Speaker Paul Ryan’s team to essentially ignore the White House proposal, which they find too moderate. Instead, they want a vote on a more conservative bill authored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).

But that bill is a “nonstarter” in the Senate, said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).

GOP leaders are arguing internally that the Goodlatte measure goes well beyond the president’s proposal, with its controversial requirements that all companies verify the legal status of their employees. They argue the bill would never pass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold — let alone win the united support of a House GOP conference that’s split over its merits.

But immigration hawks say Ryan should move the Goodlatte bill to the floor anyway

Is there a bill [Senate Democratic Whip] Dick Durbin is going to like that Jim Jordan, Dave Brat, Mark Meadows are going to like? That’s the dilemma,” said Jordan (R-Ohio), a Freedom Caucus founder. “But I know what the American people want: They didn’t vote for a Durbin bill [on the 2016 ballot]; they voted for a Goodlatte Bill ( what an idiot! Was Goodlatte on the ballot for president? )

But senators pride themselves on coming together in times of crisis to solve problems. And after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) vowed to take up an immigration bill in February, the group of senators holed up in Sen. Susan Collins' office each afternoon are pledging to put the upper chamber in the driver’s seat.

They are skeptical that the House will ever send them something that Senate Democrats can accept, and they believe they can score an endorsement from the president if they can rack up a legislative victory by a overwhelming margin.

“The best way that we can deal with that is if we can get a bill that has 65 or 70 votes and the president supports it. I think that’s our best chance for House support,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

Yet despite optimism from Alexander, Collins (R-Maine) and other members of the burgeoning gang, some senators are skeptical that anything related to immigration can pass the Senate, period.

“I’ve heard a lot of talk. And I’ve seen a lot of people talking to cameras,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). But “I don’t think there’s 60 votes there, for anything.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...retreat-380223

If nothing happens and Dems don’t win back the House in 2018, it’s definitely time for a plan B. These house republicans hate us that much !