Tomorrow, December 15, I will join the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and my colleagues in the House of Representatives in introducing a progressive, compassionate and comprehensive immigration reform bill.
Every single day in America, families are being divided. Over the past year, I’ve traveled across the country with my colleagues conducting something called the United Families ("Familias Unidas") tour. In twenty-four cities across the country, we heard from families who were being ripped apart by the current system. We’ve heard stories from a father dying from cancer whose wife faced deportation. We’ve heard from American citizen children who are faced with choosing between their parents and a college education.
This is a crisis. It’s a crisis of human and civil rights, it’s a crisis of our economy and our workforce, and it’s a crisis of national security. This is why we cannot wait any longer. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009 is a solution that we, as a nation of immigrants, can be proud of.
We’ve waited a long time for this — a workable solution to our immigration crisis.
WASHINGTON — House Democrats moved to kick-start a renewed debate on comprehensive immigration reform Tuesday, unveiling a long-awaited bill that would provide a pathway for citizenship for 12 million undocumented immigrants.
Republicans said the bill would take away jobs from American workers suffering through one of the worst economic downturns in history.
But Democratic lawmakers, with President Barack Obama’s support, said now is the time fix a broken system and said they would push for the bill’s passage next year.
“There is no wrong time or right time, there is a moral obligation,” said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., the chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Supporters and opponents of the bill agree that immigration reform faces an uphill climb in 2010, when voters go to the polls for mid-term elections.
The 700-page bill, filed Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., will carry the name of Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, the longest-serving Latino currently in the House and selected by his peers to shepherd the legislation through Congress.
“We need a system that is tough on enforcement, fair to taxpayers and enforceable,” Ortiz said. “This plan does that and more.”
The AFL-CIO is backing comprehensive immigration reform legislation introduced today, which provides a long overdue and sensible approach to immigration reform and protects the interests of all workers—foreign and U.S.-born.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the main sponsor and several co-sponsors announced introduction of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP) at a Capitol Hill press conference this afternoon.
In a statement, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said “the current [immigration] system can no longer allow a broken immigration system to strips workers of their rights on the job,”
robbing them of earned pay, the ability to collectively bargain for benefits and often placing their lives in danger, forced to work in unsafe conditions. It also penalizes law-abiding employers by forcing them into unfair competition with those that violate workers’ rights to grow their profit margins and then use the excuse of immigration status to avoid penalty or prosecution.
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