FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                           PRESS CONTACT:

November 18, 2014                                         Brenda Lopez 956.544.8352

PRESS RELEASE: Congressman Vela Urges President Obama to Use Executive Action on Immigration 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Filemon Vela (D-Brownsville) urged President Obama to use his executive authority to protect millions of individuals in the U.S. who face deportation.  It is estimated that more than 11 million undocumented people live in the U.S.  In June, President Obama said he would take executive action by the end of summer on immigration.  Subsequently, the President decided to delay action until after the midterm elections.  Recently, Senate Democratic leaders sent a letter to President Obama urging the President to use his executive authority. 

"The time for the President to act is now,” said Congressman Vela.  “Given the political realities in Washington, it is highly unlikely that meaningful immigration reform gets passed in the next two years in Congress without conditioning a pathway to citizenship on unattainable border security measures.  For far too long, our country has not provided a reasonable pathway to legalization for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in our country."

Last year, Congressman Vela and Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2013, a bill which provides a reasonable pathway to citizenship, invests in our ports of entry to enhance security and trade, and implements commonsense border security measures without conditioning legal residency status on border security triggers.

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