The House will consider several immigration-related amendments to the continuing resolution now being debated. Two of them are good but not surprising: Goodlatte wants to suspend the ridiculous Visa Lottery (something he’s worked on for a long time) and Poe wants to stop the federal lawsuit against Arizona. A third is bad but not surprising: Price wants to stop implementation of the REAL ID act, a law that prevents illegal aliens and terrorists from getting state driver’s licenses. This is something the leftists and libertarians having been trying to do for years.

But the fourth amendment, by Polis, is sneakier and more interesting: It would place a cap on the number of detention beds used to hold illegal aliens. The bill (last year’s funding bill, since this is a CR) currently provides for “no fewer than” 33,400 detention beds; Polis wants to change it to “no more than” 33,400 beds. That would enable the administration either to not spend all the money for detention space or, and this seems more likely, to spend a lot more on a smaller number of detainees. This is relevant because the anti-enforcement folks (both inside and outside the administration) have been pushing for fewer detentions and nicer accommodations for those illegal aliens being held; the Houston Chronicle’s intrepid Susan Carroll reported last year on an internal ICE e-mail suggesting “offering art classes, bingo and continental breakfast on the weekends,” along with “‘softening the look of the facility’ with hanging plants and offering fresh carrot sticks.” No word on whether aromatherapy and foot massages are being considered.