Republican Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) remains confident that a consensus of House members will agree to pass new immigration laws, as both Democrats and Republicans seek to bypass House leadership to force a vote on several bills.
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“Ultimately we have to find a solution that includes border security,” Denham said Tuesday on CNN’s” New Day,” emphasizing President Trump’s language that any bill aiding immigrants living in the U.S. illegally must also enhance security measures.
“Our goal here has always been to see [bipartisan] legislation … that’ll move to the Senate and actually get signed into law,” he said.
Denham is one of the key Republicans leading a bipartisan coalition seeking the votes to use a discharge petition, which would allow representatives to bypass House leadership to vote on what protections should be given to immigrants living illegally within the U.S.
The petition needs 218 members of the House on board to force a vote and Denham says his renegade group of centrists can get the few more needed from each party to get to that number.
While a large number have supported the measures that would offer a reprieve to nearly 800,000 “Dreamers” who came into the country as children, members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are refusing to vote on any bill that gives “amnesty.”
Pushing back against such conservative criticism, Denham told CNN that Dreamers would not be given amnesty, but would be presented with a long “earned pathway” toward citizenship.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has scheduled a members-only conference meeting on immigration for June 7.