U.S. House again postpones vote on Republican immigration bill
By Amanda Becker and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives delayed for a second time - likely to next week - a vote on an immigration bill they had originally planned to take up on Thursday. The vote on the so-called compromise Republican plan had earlier been delayed to Friday to allow members additional time to review it. It was pushed back again after lawmakers said they failed to resolve differences on key issues in a Thursday evening meeting. The Republican-controlled House earlier on Thursday defeated another, more conservative immigration bill designed to significantly reduce visas for legal immigration to the United States and to temporarily protect from deportation young "Dreamers" brought to the country illegally as children. The compromise bill, which had been set for a vote later in the day, was crafted to appeal to more Republicans, some of whom joined with Democrats to defeat the more conservative immigration measure. The compromise bill would put Dreamers on a pathway to citizenship, fund the construction of President Donald Trump's long-sought wall on the southwestern border with Mexico and require that immigrant children be kept with their parents pending deportation decisions. Lawmakers leaving the Thursday evening meeting, where bill writers went through it section by section to answer questions, said it was still unclear whether it had gained enough Republican support to pass. "I think the fact they're going through the bill, section by section, at 5:15 p.m. the day before the bill is supposed to be voted on, is indicative of the fact that there is work to be done," Republican Representative Mark Amodei told reporters. House Democrats oppose the compromise bill because of its cuts to legal immigration and border wall funding. If approved by the House and sent to the Senate, Democrats there are expected to block its passage. (Reporting by Amanda Becker and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Tom Brown and Peter Cooney)
