A group of Democrats in the House of Representatives, led by Joe Garcia of Florida, Suzan DelBene of Washington, Joaquin Castro of Texas and Jared Polis of Colorado, are expected to conduct a press conference today at noon announcing their plans for immigration reform.
Despite Congress being unable to pass a budget and avoid a government shutdown, lawmakers have continued to work on immigration reform.
Earlier this week, the Huffington Post reported that Republicans have continued working on this issue behind the scenes, despite the breakup of the House “group of seven.”
The bill to be introduced by House Democrats is expected to take the Senate “Gang of Eight” bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and combine it with the bipartisan border-security bills that passed the House Homeland Security Committee in May.
Top Democratic lawmakers, including Nancy Pelosi, Xavier Becerra of California, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus chairman Ruben Hinojosa — have been working on immigration reform in recent weeks following the end of the group of seven.
With House Democrats moving forward on this issue by introducing their own version of the immigration reform bill and with Republicans continuing discussions as well, it is clear that this issue remains a top priority for Congress, despite all of the other issues going on.
This is a critical time for the immigration reform movement. Be sure to continue reaching out to your local Representatives to let them know how important this issue is and to march alongside us this Saturday calling for human dignity and respect for immigrants.
