This Week in Immigration Reform – Week Ending April 26

Week Ending April 26

This week in immigration reform, NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguía testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee as it held its first hearing on the Gang of Eight’s bipartisan bill; NCLR Affiliate Erie Neighborhood House hosts Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D- Ill.) as the two partner up to promote immigration reform; NCLR’s Miami office, South Florida Affiliates and partners, and Rep. Joe Garcia (D-Fla.) come together at a community roundtable on immigration reform; NCLR Affiliates continue visiting their members of Congress, while NCLR Field offices debrief Affiliates on the bill and execute citizenship workshops; and a new survey finds that two-thirds of polled Republicans support the Senate Gang of Eight’s immigration reform bill.

Top Lines:

• Janet Murguía at Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing: We Need Reform This Year
• NCLR Affiliates in Action
• Republicans, American Public Overwhelmingly Support the Senate Gang of Eight’s Immigration Reform Bill

Janet Murguía at Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing: We Need Reform This Year At the Senate Judiciary Committee’s April 22nd hearing “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, S.744,”  our President and CEO Janet Murguía reaffirmed her strong support for moving forward with the immigration debate, and also thanked the Gang of Eight for introducing the bill. This was Murguía’s second appearance in the past three months before the Senate Judiciary Committee. You can read her full testimony (a clip of her in the hearing also follows) on NCLR’s website. Murguía’s message was echoed by a diverse array of witnesses, among them Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, Dr. David Fleming, Senior Pastor of Champion Forest Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, Mark Shurtleff, former Utah Attorney General, and former Republican U.S. Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona.

NCLR and Affiliates in Action: With the April in-district work period occurring next week and the process of marking up the bill and offering amendments set to begin the week of May 6, NCLR and its Affiliates worked this week to educate the Latino community about the Senate bill and to encourage lawmakers to keep the process moving forward.
NCLR Affiliate Erie Neighborhood House hosted Representatives Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) this Monday, as the two leaders in Congress paired up to detail the need for immigration reform. Rep. Ryan pointed out how reform would strengthen national security and benefit our recovering economy, describing the “contributions that immigrants make to society” as “a net positive contributor to the economy.” Rep. Gutierrez argued that immigration enforcement spending – currently at $18 billion a year – would be better used if enforcement were directed at criminals who harm America, rather than at hard-working, tax-paying, aspiring citizens. Both legislators pledged to continue working across the aisle to forge bipartisan consensus around comprehensive immigration reform.

On April 22, NCLR’s Miami office joined with South Florida Affiliates, partner organizations, and Florida Representative Joe Garcia (D-Fla.) to discuss with the Miami community immigration reform and the Senate Gang of Eight’s recently-introduced bill at a roundtable held at Florida International University. Rep. Garcia and the community leaders spoke of their support or their concerns with the Senate’s immigration bill, on how the House’s forthcoming reform bill might address concerns different from those covered in the Senate bill, and planned follow-up CIR events.

NCLR and Congressman Garcia were joined at the roundtable by representatives from SAVE Dade, Americans for Immigrant Justice, SFL Interfaith Worker Justice, SFL Jobs with Justice, FANM Haitian Women of Miami, Centro Campesino, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Dade County Farm Bureau, American Jewish Committee, American Families United, Hispanic Unity, SEIU, Florida Legal Services, and by Mayra Joli, Esq.

NCLR Affiliates and regional offices continued meeting with their members of Congress this week, focusing particularly on Senators and on the need for these legislators to support forward movement following the recent introduction of the Gang of Eight bill. On April 19, NCLR Affiliate Guadalupe Centers, Inc. and community partners had an in-person meeting with Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on immigration reform. Meanwhile, Jess George, Executive Director of NCLR Affiliate the Latin American Coalition, came to Washington, DC this week to meet with staff of North Carolina Senators Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.), urging both Senators to step up and lead on immigration reform and reminding the Senators how much North Carolina stands to gain with the passage of real reform. Finally, our Miami office joined with community partners to meet with Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) office on April 24th, encouraging the Senator to keep leading on reform with a roadmap to citizenship. Affiliates: to share with NCLR’s Immigration team how your meeting on immigration reform with your member of Congress went, please fill out the report-back form on our website.

Lastly, our Nevada office joined with Ya Es Hora to conduct a citizenship workshop in Las Vegas this past Saturday, April 20th, while NCLR’s Colorado office arranged a debrief from Sen. Michael Bennet’s staff on the Senate’s new immigration bill for four Denver-area Affiliates.

Republicans, American Public Overwhelmingly Support the Senate Gang of Eight’s Immigration Reform Bill: A recent poll commissioned by Americans for Tax Reform, the National Immigration Forum Action Fund, and the Partnership for a New American Economy finds that Republicans and the larger American public overwhelmingly support the Senate Gang of Eight’s bipartisan immigration reform bill. Around two thirds of Republicans expressed support for the recently-introduced bill, a bipartisan effort that is attracting an impressive range of support.