***PRESS ADVISORY***
Contact: Lorena Melgarejo, SFOP at (415) 724-4987
President Obama postpones once more the WHITE HOUSE IMMIGRATION MEETING:
DELAY IS A MISTAKE, BUT NOT A SETBACK
San Francisco Faith Leaders and Families join a
NATIONAL DAY of ACTION for IMMIGRANT RIGHTS at a
Vigil and Press Conference at the Federal Building to tell President Obama that Immigrant Families can no longer Wait for Immigration Reform
WHO: Interfaith Clergy Leaders and Families from San Francisco
WHAT: Vigils and Actions will be held in major cities in the US to ask President Obama to keep his promise to immigrants of Comprehensive Immigration Reform this year. This call to action happened because the meeting the President was slated to have Wednesday (June 17th) at the White House with a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders on immigration reform has been delayed by the President for the second time. Advocates from around the nation want to let the President know that our immigrant families can no longer wait for Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
WHERE: 450 Golden Gate at the steps of the Federal Building
WHEN: TUESDAY, June 16th, 2009
4:00pm
For more information, contact Lorena Melgarejo at (415) 724-4987 or lorena@sfop.org
SFOP is a federation of 30 congregations, schools, and community centers representing more than 40,000 families in San Francisco . SFOP is a member of the PICO National Network.
PRESS RELEASE from Immigration Reform FOR America Campaign
For Immediate Release Contact:
June 12, 2009 Katherine Vargas: (202) 641-5198
Shuya Ohno (202) 309-5645
WHITE HOUSE IMMIGRATION MEETING:
DELAY IS A MISTAKE, BUT NOT A SETBACK
Washington, DC – A meeting the President was slated to have Wednesday (June 17) at
the White House with a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders on immigration reform
has been delayed. 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.
We think delaying the meeting is a mistake. Momentum is building for comprehensive
immigration reform with more and more Americans demanding solutions. The President is
too smart not to move on immigration reform this year. We don’t see this as a signal that
President Obama is stepping back from reform.
All the lights are green, with strong polling support for reform that helps strengthen the
economy; hundreds of thousands of calls and faxes into Congressional offices generated by
the campaign last week and more are expected next week; and both Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying the debate on comprehensive immigration
reform is coming soon.
Reform that gets immigrants here illegally into the system and on the books, gets workers
and employers all playing by the same set of rules, and reestablishes a legal immigration
system that works so that people will use it – that is a winning political and policy
proposition. Americans want their leaders in Washington to solve tough problems and
immigration is no exception.
We fully expect the President’s strong leadership. Congress needs to act and delaying the
White House meeting doesn’t change that.
# # #
For more information on the Reform Immigration FOR America Campaign, please
visit www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org or www.reformamigratoriaproamerica.org
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Senator Reid said he has the votes for immigration reform this year
June 10 2009, 09:20 AM
Washington, June 10 (EFE) .- The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Harry Reid, said today in an interview with Efe that "there arithmetic" for approving an immigration bill this year that "out of the shadow "on undocumented immigrants. Reid encourages the Senate since the reforms of health, energy and immigration, in that order, are the three main priorities of President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress this year, and is convinced that will be approved despite objections Republican . "The Republicans are doing this as well as trying to do with the health issue: maintaining the status quo. Acknowledge that the 1986 immigration law has not worked well, and we need to reform the system," Reid said from his office in the broad Senate. The senator from Nevada referred to the 1986 law that once gave an "amnesty" for some three million undocumented. Opponents of reform have turned this law to insist that it did not stop illegal immigration in the U.S., now estimated at some 12 million illegal immigrants. Reid said he was convinced that, at least in the Senate, his party has the arithmetic to approve immigration reform this year. In the Senate, it requires 60 votes out of 100 seats, while in the House of Representatives, supporters of the reform required a total of 218 of 435. "I can not speak for the House of Representatives, but I can give the mathematics in the Senate and I think there is no doubt that we can approve it," he said. At present, Democrats and independents who usually vote with them, added 59 seats in the Senate, since a federal court must still rule on the winner in the general of Minnesota, where Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman. So the Democrats have one vote less than they need to prevent dilatory tactics of the opposition. Reid tried to minimize the skepticism that is on the reform among some moderate Democrats in court, facing the legislative elections of 2010. He added that even if legislation does not have the support of all democrats, the obstacles he had overcome the failed reform of 2007. "Say you lose 12 votes (Democrats), that leaves 48. But I am sure you will find 12 Republicans (who support the reform), I have no doubt that this is the case," he said. "We do not have the financial nor human resources to deport undocumented immigrants, as some want. Immigration is a source of strength in our country: here we bring waves of people who excel in education and the labor force, and that is good, "he said. "We must remove them from the shadows so that when someone comes out to buy milk for her child, is not subject to an arrest. We need a clean slate, a new program on immigration," he said. For Reid, a reform bill should include elements to strengthen security along the borders with Mexico and Canada, and require recipients to pay fines, learn English, are current with their taxes, have no criminal records and "put at the end of the row. " Are, in fact, almost all the elements contained in the 2007 immigration reform, which failed due to lack of consensus between Democrats and Republicans on an issue as volatile and polarized as immigration. Reid said so well, and understand intimately the migration phenomenon in the U.S., noting that his father emigrated from Russia to Lithuania and his mother-in-law, and his grandmother was born in England. During the election campaign, the president Barack Obama pledged to push immigration reform in his first year in office. On Wednesday, Obama will meet at the White House with Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress for a "common ground" and a strategy to achieve reform. That meeting had been scheduled for last Monday but was postponed for "scheduling conflicts" as the White House, which has not yet disclosed the list of participants. EFE
Washington, June 10 (EFE) .- The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Harry Reid, said today in an interview with Efe that "there arithmetic" for approving an immigration bill this year that "out of the shadow "on undocumented immigrants. Reid encourages the Senate since the reforms of health, energy and immigration, in that order, are the three main priorities of President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress this year, and is convinced that will be approved despite objections Republican . "The Republicans are doing this as well as trying to do with the health issue: maintaining the status quo. Acknowledge that the 1986 immigration law has not worked well, and we need to reform the system," Reid said from his office in the broad Senate. The senator from Nevada referred to the 1986 law that once gave an "amnesty" for some three million undocumented. Opponents of reform have turned this law to insist that it did not stop illegal immigration in the U.S., now estimated at some 12 million illegal immigrants. Reid said he was convinced that, at least in the Senate, his party has the arithmetic to approve immigration reform this year. In the Senate, it requires 60 votes out of 100 seats, while in the House of Representatives, supporters of the reform required a total of 218 of 435. "I can not speak for the House of Representatives, but I can give the mathematics in the Senate and I think there is no doubt that we can approve it," he said. At present, Democrats and independents who usually vote with them, added 59 seats in the Senate, since a federal court must still rule on the winner in the general of Minnesota, where Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman. So the Democrats have one vote less than they need to prevent dilatory tactics of the opposition. Reid tried to minimize the skepticism that is on the reform among some moderate Democrats in court, facing the legislative elections of 2010. He added that even if legislation does not have the support of all democrats, the obstacles he had overcome the failed reform of 2007. "Say you lose 12 votes (Democrats), that leaves 48. But I am sure you will find 12 Republicans (who support the reform), I have no doubt that this is the case," he said. "We do not have the financial nor human resources to deport undocumented immigrants, as some want. Immigration is a source of strength in our country: here we bring waves of people who excel in education and the labor force, and that is good, "he said. "We must remove them from the shadows so that when someone comes out to buy milk for her child, is not subject to an arrest. We need a clean slate, a new program on immigration," he said. For Reid, a reform bill should include elements to strengthen security along the borders with Mexico and Canada, and require recipients to pay fines, learn English, are current with their taxes, have no criminal records and "put at the end of the row. " Are, in fact, almost all the elements contained in the 2007 immigration reform, which failed due to lack of consensus between Democrats and Republicans on an issue as volatile and polarized as immigration. Reid said so well, and understand intimately the migration phenomenon in the U.S., noting that his father emigrated from Russia to Lithuania and his mother-in-law, and his grandmother was born in England. During the election campaign, the president Barack Obama pledged to push immigration reform in his first year in office. On Wednesday, Obama will meet at the White House with Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress for a "common ground" and a strategy to achieve reform. That meeting had been scheduled for last Monday but was postponed for "scheduling conflicts" as the White House, which has not yet disclosed the list of participants. EFE
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