Press Release:
For Immediate Release
November 19, 2014
For media inquiries, contact: Ricardo Diaz 217-979-0255, diazr@CUimmigrationforum.org
Prospective Americans welcome presidential and congressional action
On the eve of an announcement by President Obama
[Champaign, IL] The president's action today is a necessary intervention in the stalemate over reforming our broken immigration system and, more importantly, it is good news for the hundreds of thousands of families whose lives have been adversely affected by the threat of deportation.
In June of 2013, a bipartisan Senate passed S.744, a comprehensive immigration reform bill, and yet since that time the House leadership has refused to even bring it to a vote, much less offer any serious alternative proposals, so at this point any steps to improve the system - even temporarily - are steps in the right direction.
In spite of the best efforts of many good people on both sides of the aisle, immigration reform has been turned into a partisan issue regardless of the fact that the benefits of comprehensive immigration reform are to be shared across the political spectrum. Agriculture, business and labor all share the benefits when the economy grows, and immigrants don't exist in a vacuum, they have bosses, friends, families and co-workers who do vote and who are also affected by and concerned with what is said and done on this issue. As such neighbors and residents of Illinois, we call on all of our representatives to take the opportunity to remedy the situation for all residents and to not co-mingle issues to the point of paralysis. Thus, it is our hope that this move by the Democratic president will motivate the new Republican majority to pass a permanent comprehensive immigration reform bill.
In the meantime, the CU Immigration Forum stands ready to assist local residents prepare to apply for this temporary relief, and to that end we've scheduled the following:
2014 Prospective American Information event
Dec. 2nd at 6 to 8 PM
Urbana Middle School
Members of the Immigration Forum with support with experts from the Immigration Project will detail the options of the announced program. We strongly urge the communities of immigrants NOT to contract with individuals that charge for information of supposed paperwork. As attorney Jack Wilkie warns, “it is unfortunate but during times of important announcements on immigration, some individuals take advantage to prey upon the vulnerabilities of those that haven’t yet received correct information.”
Background: The CU Immigration Forum comprises of a broad cross section of community members, students, and local service providers. They meet once a month regularly to discuss and act on immigration and serving local immigrant communities. For more information, including a full list of other events to inform the public on the presidential announcement, please visit www.cuimmigrationforum.org.
Resources:
On what the parties are arguing about:
On fraud prevention:
Partners:
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