Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Nevada delegation split on party lines on House immigration bill

Congress is considering a wide range of immigration solutions, an effort that split Nevada’s delegation in the House along party lines today and killed an effort to force votes on bipartisan bills.

Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, who has long been saying that Congress needs to take up an immigration bill, today voted for a failed bill that would have authorized a border wall and a solution for certain young immigrants living in the country illegally. Nevada’s three Democrats in Congress voted against the bill, titled the Securing America’s Future Act of 2018.

Amodei had signed onto a discharge petition that fell two signatures short of forcing a vote on immigration bills such as the DREAM Act. Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said in a statement that Congress “effectively killed” the discharge petition today by bringing up the Securing America’s Future Act for a vote.

“Instead of working with Democrats, Republicans have opted to push partisan legislation that fails too many Dreamers,” Rosen said in a statement.

GOP leaders have brought up the immigration bills this week in an effort to defeat the discharge petition. In a statement today, Amodei criticized his party leadership for trying to solve the latest immigration crisis behind closed doors.

“Frankly, if it hadn’t been for the discharge petition focusing everybody on the issue for the last month, this would have caught us completely by surprise,” he said.

Congress delayed taking up another immigration bill until next week.