WASHINGTON — Democrats shunned a White House veto threat and muscled legislation through the House on Tuesday that would bestow a chance for citizenship on an estimated 2 million-plus migrants, a bill that stands virtually no chance of enactment but lets them showcase their efforts on one of their highest-profile priorities.
The measure is just one skirmish in Democrats’ multifront battle against most congressional Republicans over immigration, an issue that has deadlocked the two parties for decades but intensified under the harsh policies and rhetoric of President Donald Trump. It is likely fated to join a host of other House-passed measures advancing Democrats’ agenda that are running aground in the GOP-run Senate, including legislation on health care, gun control, climate change and election security.
The bill passed on a near party-line 237-187 vote as supporters in the House visitors’ galleries roared “Yes We Can” and other chants, a rare display of raucous emotion in a chamber whose rules require decorum by its guests. Seven Republicans from mostly moderate districts were the only lawmakers to cross party lines.
As if to underscore the relentlessness and sweep of the immigration fight, the Democratic-led House Appropriations Committee took its own swipe at Trump by unveiling a separate bill that provides no additional money next year for building the president’s long-sought barriers along the southwest border. That measure also claws back a portion of the billions of dollars Trump has unilaterally diverted toward constructing portions of his wall.
The House-passed bill would protect from deportation and provide a pathway toward citizenship for young migrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Many would be “Dreamers” currently safeguarded by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which only the federal courts have thwarted Trump from dismantling.
It would also shield others here temporarily because their home countries — chiefly in Central America, Africa and the Middle East — have been ravaged by wars or natural disasters.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that more than 2 million people already in the U.S. would get legal status under the House bill. The analysts also said the measure would cost more than $30 billion over the next decade, largely because many migrants attaining legal status would qualify for federal benefits like Medicaid.
Democrats said that besides humanitarian considerations, helping the migrants stay in the U.S. would benefit the economy and the many industries that employ them as workers. Among the bill’s supporters are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO labor organization, immigration and liberal groups.
“This is about who we are as Americans, and what is in the best interests of our country,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., the measure’s chief sponsor.
Republicans criticized the bill for lacking border security provisions that they and Trump have long demanded as part of any major immigration bill, and said it dangled overly generous provisions that would encourage even more illegal immigration.
“This bill, to my mind, would ruin America,” said Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis.
White House aides sent lawmakers a letter threatening a Trump veto, saying the measure “would incentivize and reward illegal immigration” without “protecting our communities and defending our borders.”
