US House defeats Trump-supported immigration bill

Workers clear the steps of the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein - RC1A48522B90

The US House of Representatives today defeated an immigration bill supported by President Donald Trump which had proposed a merit-based immigration system and elimination of country quotas in green card allotment, dealing a setback to the president.

The Border Security and Immigration Reform Act, also known as the Goodlatte Bill because of it being introduced by Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte from Virginia, was defeated by 121 to 300 votes in the Republican-majority House of Representatives.

Trump had made a last-minute push for the legislation. But he failed to convince his own lawmakers. “Once again, Republican leaders put a partisan immigration bill on the floor, and it failed overwhelmingly,” House Democratic Whip Steny H Hoyer said.

The vote makes it absolutely clear - once again - that the only path forward to protecting 'Dreamers' is a bipartisan process that leads to votes on bipartisan legislation, said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us which is backed by top IT companies.

“We opposed this bill today. While it contained some good elements, it came with harmful cuts to legal immigration levels and allowed the indefinite detention of children and families - and we opposed it because it abandoned a bipartisan process that is absolutely required to get legislation signed into law,” Schultz said.