House GOP leaders scrapped Monday a floor vote on a Democratic measure calling for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be abolished.
The House will now vote on Wednesday on a Republican resolution to support ICE, reporters were told by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “What I found so interesting is the Democrats introduced a bill to abolish ICE … we give them an opportunity, and they say they don’t want to vote for it,” said McCarthy, who controls which bills come to the House floor.
Last week, he said he would bring the abolish ICE bill to the floor in an effort to force Democrats to take a difficult vote. However, despite GOP expectations, Democrats in swing districts didn’t hesitate to condemn the federal agency which fights human and drug trafficking at the border. Instead, they responded by promising to vote “no.”
In a joint statement, the authors of the progressive-backed bill, Democratic Representatives Mark Pocan, Pramila Jayapal and Adriano Espaillat, called the vote a “political stunt.”
A source familiar with the discussions said that House Speaker Paul Ryan and some other Republicans disagreed with the idea to hold a vote, adding that the decision to reverse course followed a standing meeting between Ryan and McCarthy on Friday.
Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong criticized Democrats in a statement, saying they were “called on their bluff” and “ran scared from their own bill.”
“Democrats will now have the chance to stand with the majority of Americans who support ICE and vote for this resolution, or follow the extreme voices on the far left calling for abolishment of an agency that protects us,” she added.
On the other hand, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the entire idea about a vote to abolish ICE was silly and should never have been brought up.
However, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said he would like the bill to come to the floor, despite it being canceled. “Whip Scalise remains supportive of having this vote. He brought it up at [Republican Study Committee] steering and deputy whip this week and was met with overwhelming support from members,” a source familiar with his thinking said.
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