Last week we celebrated the one year anniversary of the introduction of the Immigration Reform bill in the Senate. In addition, the main sponsors of the HR15-immigration bill, introduced by Democrats in the House of Representatives in October of last year, announced a new strategy to demand action from the Republicans in the House of Representatives on immigration reform.
Days ago, Democrats announced that a new memorandum is being distributed to 30 Republicans who have publicly declared their support for immigration reform. The memorandum explains how to put pressure on Republicans to sign the discharge petition on HR15 and thus bring the bill to a vote.
In addition, the document highlights the economic benefits that could be created if Congress chooses to pass immigration reform.
Furthermore, The White house released an infographic showcasing the negative effects of inaction.
Some of these negative effects include:
· $80 billion dollars less injected into our economy in the next decade.
· $40 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years.
· 40,000 graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in American universities are at risk of leaving the country each year if immigration reform is not passed.
· Reliable social security fund will lose $50 billion over the next 10 years.
And to top it off, according to a survey by Global Strategy Group and Basswood Research, only 12 percent of Republicans are less inclined to vote for a candidate who supports immigration reform. Also, according to a CNN poll, 81 percent of Americans and 72 percent of Republicans support a fair path to citizenship.
Survey after survey, it is obvious that the majority of the country wants immigration reform passed. Not only that, Americans also understand that this would be a positive step for our economy and help reduce the national deficit by about $1 trillion over the next two decades.
The truth is that Democrats and President Obama have exhausted all political means to negotiate with Republicans and pass immigration reform.
With midterm elections coming in November, Republicans are running out of time to negotiate with Democrats to finally reform our immigration system.
And if Republicans fail to act, the president is likely to take the matter under his own hands and use his executive and constitutional power to alleviate some deportations and put an end temporarily to the plight of thousands of families being separated as a result of the inaction of Republicans.
This piece originally appeared in Spanish in the Washington Hispanic
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