House GOP Outmaneuvers Democrats With Pro-ICE Resolution

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House Republican leaders have cancelled a floor vote on H. R. 6361, a measure introduced by Democrats that would terminate Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As recently as July 12, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he intended to bring H.R. 6361 to the floor — a move that would have put Democrats in districts where voters were concerned about illegal immigration in a difficult position. The GOP leadership thought Democrats in such districts would be reluctant to vote to abolish ICE.

Because the bill had become such a hot potato politically, many House Democrats were reluctant to vote on it. So, in response to McCarthy’s move to bring the bill to the floor, they formed a consensus to oppose their own “Abolish ICE” legislation.

“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,” McCarthy said, as quoted by The Hill.

McCarthy then played a card that Democrats were not expecting.

“The Democrats think they have us in check,” an unnamed House GOP leadership source told Breitbart News. “We are about to put them in checkmate.”

Breitbart reported that that move by the House GOP was to bring to the floor an alternate resolution that would instead of “abolishing ICE,” denounce calls to abolish the agency and praise it instead.

The Republican measure, introduced by Representative Clay Higgins (R-La.) is H. Res. 990, which “Expresses support for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and personnel and denounces calls for ICE’s abolishment.”

Breitbart summarized the Democrats’ difficult position as follows:

But now that Democrats will be forced to not only oppose their own bill, which they have already demonstrated they do, but vote either for or against the Higgins resolution praising ICE, they are boxed in. A vote against Higgins’ resolution, as many Democrats will surely do, is in other words a vote to abolish ICE — again, a deeply unpopular position with the voting middle class across America.

An article posted by The New American on July 5 cited a recent Harvard-Harris poll indicating that 69 percent of those polled said ICE should not be disbanded, while 70 percent of them said ICE should instead step up its enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws.