The House has reconvened to consider the immigration bill approved by Sen. Ted Cruz and Reps. Michele Bachmann and Steve King. Because they're now the GOP's point people on immigration, apparently. Suck on that, Marco Rubio. With the approval of the whack-job caucus, you know there's some
ugly stuff in the two bills they'll be voting on tonight, one on appropriations, one on President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The appropriations bill, which was $659 million on Thursday night, will now include an additional $35 million to bolster National Guard resources at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The bill, which also contains numerous related policy riders, will also expand on language tweaking a 2008 trafficking law in order to expedite deportations of the migrants. […]
In addition to making it easier to expedite deportations, their proposal would allow immigration enforcement officials to detain children while they wait for deportation hearings and require immigration enforcement officials to investigate people taking custody of undocumented immigrant children to determine whether they are being compensated by drug smugglers.
Regarding DACA—the 2012 executive order granting stays of deportation to young undocumented immigrants brought to the country illegally by their parents—that language would revert back to the original legislation introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. GOP leaders quietly softened the language in the earlier proposal, angering conservatives.
There will be a series of three votes, one on the rule for these bills and then votes on each of the bills, but that's after each vote gets an hour of debate. It's going to be a long night, and all for naught. The bill is going to be poison to the Senate and to President Obama.