Thursday, October 17, 2013

NOW IT'S TIME FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

With the fiscal crisis in Washington now resolved for at least a few months, now it's time for Congress to move forward with immigration reform.

The Senate has passed a comprehensive Bill to fix our broken immigration system.  Now it's time for the House to take up that same Bill and vote on it.  Many Congress-watchers believe that the House has enough votes to pass the Senate Bill if the Speaker would abandon his stated goal that a majority of House Republicans must agree to the Bill before he brings it up for a vote.  On Wednesday night he suspended that informal rule to pass the fiscal package.

I urge him to do the same with the pending Senate Bill that is now in the House.

Our brothers and sisters who live and work in our midst, albeit in the shadows of our society because of their unauthorized status, deserve respect and dignity as human beings.  They are here because there are low-skilled and low-wage jobs which Americans will simply not do.  We have created a magnet to attract them here, and having benefited from their hard labors, we now have an obligation to offer them an earned path to full legal status.

You and I still have work to do:  send an email to your Representative in the House urging them to put aside petty objections and to vote for the Senate Bill which is now before them.

May the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph intercede for us on behalf of all immigrants in our midst!