LULAC Immigration

Today, more than 300 people representing the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico gathered on the steps of the Library of Congress to press the U.S. House of Representatives to vote on—and to pass—H.R. 2000, the Puerto Rico Status Resolution Act, a bipartisan bill that outlines the rights and responsibilities of statehood, provides for an up-or-down vote in Puerto Rico on the territory’s admission as a state, and prescribes the steps the president and Congress would take if a majority of voters favor admission.

Following LULAC’s extremely successful immigrant veteran postcard campaign which delivered 15,000 postcards to Congress earlier this week calling for passage of comprehensive immigration reform and for support of the families of immigrant veterans, the Department of Homeland Security has announced on Friday that they will halt the deportations of family members of veterans and active duty service members.

Leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Hispanic Federation (HF) and U.S. Air Force veteran Jesus Magaña highlighted the moral imperative for Congress to enact commonsense immigration reform in honor of immigrants and families of immigrants who have served in the U.S. military.

In this week’s Virginia race, the Latino community demonstrated that it is a powerful voting block and that candidates running for elected office would be well served to avoid anti-immigrant rhetoric which marginalizes Latinos. Read more.

Earlier this month, as part of LULAC’s ACTober advocacy visits, LULAC members representing California and other parts of the country met with Congressman Jeff Denham to press the importance of passing immigration reform this year.