National Council of La Raza Applauds Representative Gutierrez for Advancing Comprehensive Immigration Reform

NCLR (National Council of La Raza), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, today praised Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D–IL) for his commitment to introducing a comprehensive immigration reform bill this fall. The proposal will be an important step forward in moving toward President Obama’s goal to pass an immigration bill by early 2010.

“NCLR thanks Representative Gutierrez for his continued leadership on behalf of immigrant communities throughout the country. We will continue to work with him as he crafts a bill that will spur movement toward reform in Congress,” said Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO.

NCLR has urged Congress to begin the process of fixing our country’s broken immigration system because the impact of the failed system is deeply felt by the Latino community and all Americans—the urgency is clear and the time to act is now. Congress’s inaction has allowed fringe groups to manipulate this issue and create an environment of intolerance against immigrants, regardless of their immigration status. Recently, the toxic rhetoric has spilled into the health care reform debate, which only reinforces the need for a comprehensive solution to our broken immigration system.

NCLR hopes and expects that Representative Gutierrez’s bill will garner widespread support by many key allies and proponents of reform, including members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, and other congressional leaders. The plan will help spark legislative action on immigration reform this fall. “NCLR is committed to working with members of Congress who will play a key role in advancing progress toward a solution that the majority of Americans can support, one that will fulfill the promise of reform that was made to millions of voters,” concluded Murguía.”

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