McCarthy: There will be a June vote on Goodlatte immigration bill

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday said there will be a vote in June on hard-line immigration legislation that conservatives have been pushing for.

McCarthy, who controls the floor schedule, said he’s already assured members of the House Freedom Caucus that the legislation from Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas) will reach the House floor.

“I’ve already told them we’re going to give them a vote on Goodlatte, so I don’t understand the difficulty,” McCarthy said.{mosads}

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have been threatening to withhold their votes for the farm bill — a bill that is a priority for Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — unless there is action on the Goodlatte bill, which would impose new limits on legal immigration in return for granting temporary status to recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

DACA has allowed immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children to live, work and go to school without fear of deportation.

While GOP leadership had hoped to bring up the farm bill on Friday, Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said he would like to see a vote on the Goodlatte bill first.

Some Freedom Caucus members expressed doubt about McCarthy’s commitment to have the vote on Goodlatte’s bill, arguing that leaders have made that same promise in the past.

“It would have to be a bindable commitment,” said one Freedom Caucus member, “and even then I’m not sure that would satisfy many.” 

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said discussions with members on a path forward will continue. 

“Well, we’ve been talking to them about ways to resolve the differences between the two bills for a while, and we’re working through some pretty complicated issues, but we’re also making headway,” he told The Hill. “So, we know we want to get a vote on the Goodlatte bill, I guess right now the question is when.” 

Even if Goodlatte’s bill reaches the House floor, it appears to have little chance of passing in its current form.

The bill, known as the Securing America’s Future Act, only has 96 co-sponsors, well short of a majority.

Scott Wong contributed. Updated at 5:47 p.m.