MOVING FORWARD—AND BACKWARD—ON IMMIGRATION
While Senate Lays Groundwork for Bipartisan Immigration Reform, House Members Attempt Retread of Partisan Politics

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee formally opened discussion about the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 this morning. As expected, amendments to the legislation, which was introduced last week by a bipartisan group of eight senators, won’t be considered until May 9. Below is a statement from Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center:

“Today marked the beginning of what will undoubtedly be a thorough amendment session on the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform bill. As Senator Schumer noted, this bill isn’t perfect. We hope the markup session scheduled for most of May will improve the bill by making a road to citizenship achievable for all aspiring citizens, regardless of their socioeconomic status.

“As Senator Klobuchar noted, although the bill is complicated, senators need to read only 40 pages of it per day to ensure that they are fully prepared for the next stage in its legislative process. Furthermore, she reminded her colleagues that although this bill is new, the issues are the same ones they dealt with six years ago, because Congress has failed to act. We agree.

“Unfortunately, the show of bipartisanship did not extend to other side of the Capitol. Shortly before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Goodlatte and a few colleagues attempted to peddle a retread of failed, partisan politics as their version of a “solution” to fix our broken immigration system. It appears that some members of the House of Representatives failed to understand the message delivered by millions of Latino and Asian American voters in 2012: We are tired of playing politics on immigration, an issue that affects our families, communities and economy. We urge Rep. Goodlatte and others to join his colleagues — on both sides of the aisle — to enact commonsense immigration reform that creates a direct and inclusive road to citizenship.”

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MOVING FORWARD—AND BACKWARD—ON IMMIGRATION While Senate Lays Groundwork for Bipartisan Immigration Reform, House Members Attempt Retread of Partisan Politics

MOVING FORWARD—AND BACKWARD—ON IMMIGRATION
While Senate Lays Groundwork for Bipartisan Immigration Reform, House Members Attempt Retread of Partisan Politics