For Immediate Release: Thursday, September 17th, 2009
Contact: Shuya Ohno, Reform Immigration FOR America, 202-309-5645

Representative Luis Gutierrez Pledges to Draft Immigration Reform Legislation This Year in Response to Immigrant Community’s Outcry

Washington, DC – Today, Representative Luis Gutierrez, addressing about three hundred advocates in town for the Unity in Motion Citizenship Day events, announced he will release principles for a progressive immigration reform bill by the middle of October. The event was a town hall community dialogue in Washington where delegates offered their concerns and experiences on the need for immigration reform and asked for specific commitments from the Members of Congress in attendance, including Rep. Gutierrez. The following is a statement by Rich Stolz, Campaign Manager of Reform Immigration FOR America campaign:

“The Reform Immigration FOR America campaign applauds Representative Gutierrez for stepping forward on comprehensive immigration reform, and making his announcement in response to the real stories and experiences of immigrants and citizens on Citizenship Day.”

“Congressman Gutierrez holds in his heart the stories he has been collecting from immigrants and their families during his Family Unity/Familias Unidas Tour on which he talked with as many as 25,000 individuals and families in churches in at least 24 different cities across the country this year.  Community leaders from across the nation are looking to Congressman Gutierrez to take leadership in establishing legislative principles for workable immigration reform that will best serve the interests and upholds the values of America.”

“To realistically fix the broken immigration system, any piece of legislation will need the support and cooperation of those directly impacted, including labor, faith, and most importantly, immigrant communities themselves.  Since we can never deport our way out of our current mess – nor should we want to – any system we create will rely on immigrants coming forward voluntarily to get into the system.

“Rep. Gutierrez is exactly the right person to craft a bill that brings a broad coalition together to ensure that the voices, interests, and needs of impacted families and communities are at the table and part of process of crafting and passing real, common sense immigration reform.”

“This is the start of the process and there will be other leaders in Congress who offer proposals.  We look forward to hearing and seeing the ideas of Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and others who play key roles in advancing the process this year.”

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ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN: The Reform Immigration FOR America campaign is a coalition of more than 600 faith, labor, business, progressive, and immigration reform groups that have joined together to get comprehensive immigration reform passed. Individuals interested in receiving text message updates from the campaign can text the word “Justice” (or “Justicia,” for replies in Spanish) to 69866. For more information on the campaign please visit www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org or www.reformamigratoriaproamerica.org