White House Meeting Starts Immigration Reform Process: “President Shows Way Forward”

June 25, 2009

Focus Shifts to Congress for Solutions and Action

Washington, DC – The President meets with Members of Congress today to discuss moving comprehensive immigration reform forward in Congress this year. The following is a statement by Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, speaking on behalf of the Reform Immigration FOR America campaign, a recently launched national campaign to get comprehensive immigration reform passed this year.

The President is putting this on the national agenda and Congress’ job is to take the momentum the President is creating and get a bill done.  On immigration reform, the American people want workable solutions that move the country forward together, and the President is getting the ball rolling.

We want progress this year, we are pushing for concrete action, and we expect the legislative debate to get underway this fall.  The Washington insiders, reporters and opponents of immigration reform that are lining up to pronounce the immigration reform debate dead before it even begins are dead wrong.  This issue only gets harder to solve the longer we wait and the problems with our broken immigration system only get worse.

If a vote were held today, would we win?  Probably, but a vote isn’t scheduled for today.  In the coming weeks, the specifics will become clearer and the politics more clearly defined, but this we know:  The Democrats would be crazy not to lead the way forward towards a solution on this issue for the American people and the Republicans would be crazy to let this issue fester for another year because of the damage that has been done by following those who harshly oppose sensible reform.

There is tremendous pressure on the Congress to move forward this year and the President is showing the way.  Both the Democrats and Republicans can count on lots of reminders from us that American workers, immigrants, employers, and families want solutions and want progress this year.