WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House rejected a second immigration bill Wednesday, despite being broader in scope and having last-minute support from President Trump.
- Immigration bill fails in U.S. House
- Conservative, moderate Republicans split
- Lawmakers struggling to find solutions
The vote was 301-121, with nearly half of Republicans opposing the measure. The vote count shows the deep gulf between conservative and moderate Republicans. Last week a more conservative package was defeated, but more Republicans, 193, voted for it.
The bill would give Dreamers a shot at citizenship, while also providing $25 billion for a wall across the border with Mexico, restricting family-based immigration and barring Homeland Security from taking migrant children from parents detained while crossing the border.
All Democrats voted against both bills.
Even if the bill had passed, it would have been dead on arrival in the Senate, where Democrats had enough votes to kill the bill.
STRUGGLING TO FINDING SOLUTIONS
Lawmakers are struggling to find the answers to the immigration question, especially now that a federal judge has ruled the government must reunite immigrant children separated from their families.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, says that will be easier said than done.
"There are going to be people that were already deported because the timing didn't add up," Rubio said.
Eight of the 70 children at the Homestead, FL facility who were separated from their families have not been in contact with their parents because the Department of Health and Human Services has not been able to find them.
"That is a very sad situation as a result of an administration not having a plan for reunification," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida.
Nelson just Tuesday was told something different by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
"He said the parents are in detention and we can't put them back with the parents because there's a 20-day limit with the courts," Nelson said.
The federal government is obligated to release any child from custody after about 20 days even if the child is in custody with their parents. Which is why the administration is asking Congress to pass a law that would extend that 20-day limit.
"I think the best solution is to be able to hold families in the safest, most humane ways possible while they await their hearings," Rubio said. "The problem of releasing everyone, when you release someone when they unlawfully enter the country, in a very high percentage of cases, two years later, they never show up for their hearing,"
Lawmakers are expected to turn to a more narrow family separation bill after the broad immigration bill failed, but most Democrats do not support a plan that would keep families in extended detention.
Information from the Associated Press, and Spectrum News digital media producer Christie Zizo contributed to this report.