This morning, President Obama met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) at the White House to discuss the Administration’s efforts to urge the House to take action and pass commonsense immigration reform. Last month, the Senate passed historic legislation with a strong bipartisan vote and the President encouraged the CHC to enlist their colleagues in the House to finish the job on immigration reform at the earliest possible opportunity.
The President thanked the CHC for their continued and longstanding leadership on this critical issue and expressed the need to pass immigration reform now to help grow the economy, create jobs and reduce the deficit. He pointed to a new report released by the White House today, detailing the key benefits to the U.S. that would result from signing commonsense reform into law. The report, titled The Economic Benefits of Fixing Our Broken Immigration System, shows that the economic costs of inaction are simply too high to delay.
The President also emphasized that during the next few weeks, members of his Cabinet and Senior Administration officials will bring this economic argument to key stakeholders, including business leaders, state and local lawmakers, law enforcement officials, faith and evangelical leaders, and the American people to call upon the House to do the right thing on immigration. The President expressed his willingness to continue working with both parties to make sure that commonsense immigration reform becomes a reality as soon as possible.
The President was pleased to hear from CHC members and noted that they share the same priorities, including that any enacted reform legislation must include a path to earned citizenship. The President said that he looks forward to working with them and other Members of Congress to pass this important legislation. In the meeting, the President and the CHC members also engaged on Affordable Care Act implementation and discussed voting rights.
A photo of the meeting is available HERE.