This Week in Immigration Reform – Week Ending August 1
Week Ending August 1, 2014
This week in immigration reform: Republican leadership scraps a vote on their flawed funding bill for the humanitarian emergency along the Southern border (H.R.5230) after failing to round up support from House Republicans; NCLR joins leaders from Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), labor, and faith organizations in the release of the 2014 National Immigration Score Card evaluating Congress’ performance on the issue of immigration reform; NCLR publishes the second installment of its “Hanging in the Balance: Stories of Aspiring Americans” blog series, which highlights the powerful stories of families living under our broken immigration system and the need for administrative relief.
Republican Leadership nixes border bill minutes prior to vote. A vote on the Republican-crafted H.R. 5230 was cancelled Thursday afternoon, after it became clear that it did not have support from conservative lawmakers. The bill, which touted a reduced budget of $659 million to fund border agencies, deploy National Guard troops, and policy recommendations to hasten the deportations of the children fleeing violence in Central America, failed to get the votes needed to push the legislation forward. At this time, the House Republican leadership has not held another vote, although they have spent the day discussing how they can get support within the Republican conference to pass the legislation even though President Obama called their proposal “extreme” and said he would veto it.
NCLR joins members from Latino, AAPI, labor and faith organizations to release the 2014 National Immigration Score Card. At a press conference this past Monday, July 28th, NCLR in collaboration with ten other national advocacy groups, announced the final results of the 2014 National Immigration Score Card spotlighting Congress’ failure to bring about comprehensive immigration reform. The report, which ranked the individual performance of all 435 members of the House of Representatives either in advancing or impeding immigration-related legislation, revealed a disappointing effort by congressional leaders to remedy our immigration laws. As the diverse organizations made clear, the failure of the House to act on immigration reform legislation leaves the President no option but to act. Take a look at how your state’s delegation fared here.
Clarissa Martinez De Castro, Deputy Vice President of NCLR, speaks at a press conference with Latino, AAPI, labor, and faith leaders
Check out the second installment of our “Hanging in the Balance: Stories of Aspiring Americans” blog series. Last week we launched a blog series that explores the plight of families living under our broken immigration system and how they could stand to benefit from administrative action on immigration reform.
This week’s story brings us yet another way our immigration laws are senselessly tearing families apart by highlighting the life-altering decision Rachel Custodio and her husband Paulo, a mixed-status couple, had to make when one spouse faced deportation.
If you have a story you would like us to feature in our blog series, please contact Laura Vazquez at [email protected]
