.jpg)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Joseph Rendeiro
(202) 776-1566
jrendeiro@nclr.org
Today, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “Keeping Families Together: The President’s Executive Action on Immigration and the Need to Pass Comprehensive Reform.”
“As the Senate Judiciary Committee holds its last hearing in the 113th Congress, we are reminded of what is possible when both sides come to the table to resolve the country’s pressing concerns,” said Janet Murguía, President and CEO of NCLR (National Council of La Raza). “We are also reminded that when the nation’s agenda is surrendered to a few extreme voices, as it was in the House of Representatives by Republican leadership, the business of the people remains undone.”
On June 27, 2013, after months of hearings, hundreds of amendments, 37 hours of committee debate and nine days on the floor, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate, in a rare show of bipartisan cooperation, passed comprehensive immigration reform legislation. After a year and a half of House Republican leadership’s refusal to bring legislation forward in their chamber, President Obama exercised his legitimate executive powers to make some needed progress on this issue.
“We support the Immigration Accountability Executive Actions taken by the president and hope that these spur the new Congress into action, as previous executive actions by presidents of both parties have done,” added Murguía. “The lasting solution we need—the thorough overhaul of our immigration system—can only be achieved through legislation. It is time to stop holding that process hostage while our economy and families pay the consequences.”
###