On Citizenship Day, Cong. Gutierrez Announces Major Immigration Reform Plans

America's Voice Blog

Posted 09/18/09 at 08:56am

Gutierrez

Update: I'll update ongoing blog coverage of the announcement below the fold.

Yesterday Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) spoke at the National Citizenship Day celebration in Washington, DC, in front of Members of Congress and hundreds of community leaders, who urged him to introduce real immigration reform legislation, real soon. To an eager crowd, Rep. Gutierrez announced that he would introduce such comprehensive immigration reform legislation this Fall, and in a press statement late yesterday, said:

I am overwhelmed by the support of immigrant, faith-based and community-based organizations in urging me to introduce comprehensive immigration legislation. We simply cannot wait any longer for a bill that keeps our families together, protects our workers and allows a pathway to legalization for those who have earned it. Saying immigration is a priority for this Administration or this Congress is not the same as seeing tangible action, and the longer we wait, the more every single piece of legislation we debate will be obstructed by our failure to pass comprehensive reform.

Rep. Gutierrez has been playing a major role in moving reform forward and has been standing strong for rational policy in the face of an increasingly-ugly Republican strategy to use immigration as a wedge to sour the health care debate -- a play which has largely caught Democratic Senators and the Administration flat-footed.

During the last year, Rep. Gutierrez has led a series of listening tours and major interfaith community events under the banner of the "Familias Unidas" tour. It was at one of the Tour's stops that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi argued passionately:

"Our future is about our children."

No matter if those families arrived two days ago or centuries ago, Pelosi said "that opportunity, that determination, that hope has made American more American."

She said, "Taking parents from their children ... that's un-American."

Along with immigration reform groups across the country, we look forward to working with Congressman Gutierrez as he crafts legislation that helps to create a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented, keep families together instead of breaking them apart, protect the rights of workers, restore due process, and implement rational immigration enforcement that restores confidence in the immigration system.

Even as most of the country is fixated on health care reform, the need to pass real, comprehensive immigration reform has only grown clearer-- exemplified in Rep. Joe Wilson's now-infamous outburst last week.

As Marcelo Ballve points out in Rep. Joe Wilson-- A Herald of the Coming Immigration Wars:

It was more than just a rude interruption, and a breach of decorum. It was an undigested piece within the national body politic coming to the surface. President Obama, absorbed in his health care campaign, has had to delay his promised immigration overhaul that would seek to offer some sort of path to legal status for the nation’s 12 million undocumented immigrants [...] But until the illegal immigration problem is reckoned with, Republicans, and not a few Democrats, will scapegoat illegal immigrants for many of the nation’s problems.

We applaud Congressman Gutierrez for demonstrating the courage and will to move forward on this much-needed reform, and we look forward to the day when Rep. Wilson won't have anything to shout about.

Blog Coverage of Gutierrez' announcement:

The Unapologetic Mexican: UMX Gives Props to Rep. Gutierrez for Taking Proactive and Humane Stance on Immigration Reform

CAUSA: Oregon Coalition Applauds Rep. Gutierrez for Taking the Lead on Immigration Reform Legislation

Reform Immigration For America: Citizenship Week: Communities call on Rep. Gutierrez to Take the Lead on Immigration Reform Legislation

Restore Fairness: Summer's Over But Immigration's Heating Up...

Immigration Impact: Immigration Reform: Congress’s Perennial Pothole