How moderate Republicans stumbled in their gambit to force Congress to help Dreamers
WASHINGTON_The public face of the long-shot effort to pass House immigration legislation in recent weeks has been California's Rep. Jeff Denham.
In May, a group of moderate Republicans representing heavily Latino districts banded together with Democrats in an attempt to force GOP House leaders into holding a vote on a variety of immigration bills through a little used procedure called a discharge petition. They were frustrated that Congress had failed to agree on a legislative solution for the hundreds of thousands of people brought to the country illegally as children, known as Dreamers, after President Donald Trump terminated an Obama-era program that protected them from deportation.
When the effort got close to the 218 signatures needed to force their hand, GOP leaders began instead seeking a compromise between the conservative and moderate wings of the GOP, one that they hoped would get enough Republican support to pass without Democrats.
The discharge petition fell short by just two signatures. Weeks of heavy
