Latino Immigrant Community Urges the Obama Administration and Congressional Leaders to Swiftly Enact Sensible and Humane Immigration Reform

Press Statement                                                                   June 24, 2009

Contacts, National: Carlos Fernandez, (77... / cfernandez@nalacc.org
Boston: Patricia Montes, (61...
Chicago: Claudia Lucero, (77...
Los Angeles: Claudia Zapata, (21...
New York: Fernando Muñoz, (64...

Latino Immigrant Community Urges the Obama Administration and Congressional Leaders to Swiftly Enact Sensible and Humane Immigration Reform.

Chicago, Ill. The National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC), commends President Obama for convening a meeting with Congressional leaders on June 25 to begin tackling immigration reform. NALACC also urges the President and the U.S. Congress to swiftly enact sensible and humane immigration reform.

“We commend President Obama and Congressional Leaders for taking up the daunting challenge of fixing a system that is woefully broken, unjust and immoral”, stated Oscar Chacón, NALACC’s Executive Director. “We are also concerned that any legislation proposed will not substantively change our current immigration policy which engenders suffering among immigrant families while being a complete waste of tax payers’ dollars” added Mr. Chacón.

NALACC, in conjunction with a broad spectrum of advocacy and immigrant-led organizations, has sent a letter to President Obama urging him to act both swiftly and thoughtfully. “In our view, it is critical that the U.S. Congress enact immigration reform soon and that they do it well” stated Angela Sanbrano, NALACC’s President. “We do not want additional anti-family measures, but real changes that expedite the processing of legal permanent residency and citizenship applications, restore due process for immigrants in deportation proceedings and provide an expeditious and financially accessible path to legal permanent residency for people who have been forced to live without such protection by the current obsolete law we have in place,” added Ms. Sanbrano.

“We are a blessing to this country” stated Jose Luis Gutierrez, Treasurer of the NALACC Executive Committee. “We deserve to be full members of the country we have adopted and to which we have contributed with our work, our taxes, our family values and our culture. We are concerned that the process to make us full members of this society, that is to say, citizens of the United States, will be frustrated by long and thorny legal processes or by temporary work visas that will not fully protect our rights” added Mr. Gutierrez.

NALACC acknowledges that comprehensive immigration reform may not be feasible in today’s political context due to a packed legislative agenda. “If comprehensive immigration reform that truly fixes the moral brokenness of our current system is not possible this year, we urge the Obama Administration to use its executive authority to put an immediate end to raids and to the cooperative agreements between immigration agents and local police departments” stated Chacón. “We also urge the U.S. Congress to enact limited-scope legislation such as the DREAM Act and AgJOBS, which, if approved, would contribute towards achieving an immigration policy that is sensible and humane” concluded Mr. Chacón.

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NALACC is a network of immigrant-led organizations working to improve the quality of life in their communities, in the United States, as well as in their countries of origin. Visit us on the web at www.nalacc.org