National Latino and AAPI Leaders Tell McCarthy Set a Date for Immigration Reform or Own Killing America’s Best Chance for a Lasting Solution

June 19, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – National Latino and AAPI leaders released the following statement today after House Republicans elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California as Majority Leader. McCarthy represents a largely farmworker district that is 35% Latino and 5% Asian American and Pacific Islander. The election comes on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Senate passage of S.744, a comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed with a vote of 68 to 32. The following is a statement by national Latino and AAPI organizations:

“With his ascension up the House GOP leadership ladder, McCarthy now has an opportunity to lead his party’s conference toward a broad, pragmatic solution favored by a majority of voters across the U.S. and in his district. As McCarthy once said, ‘We’re all up for office every two years; we should be very reflective of what America thinks.’

“The new Majority Leader can either schedule a House floor vote on workable immigration reform or he can kill the best chance in decades to fix the immigration system and miss a big opportunity to work with Latino, AAPI, and immigrant communities. Our communities and our country need a response now.”

Recently, the leaders of six national Latino and four Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) groups issued preliminary congressional scorecards that showed the GOP leadership -- including McCarthy -- failing Latino and AAPI communities on the critical issue of immigration reform. Final scores will be released in July, with a renewed commitment to educate Latino, AAPI and all interested communities on who has led on immigration reform and who has obstructed progress on this critical issue.

The organizations issuing the scorecards include: Hispanic Federation, Labor Council of Latin American Citizens, National Council of La Raza, Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, Voto Latino, National Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, Japanese American Citizens League, National Korean American Service and Education Consortium, and OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates.

Press contacts:

• NAKASEC: Diana Bui dbui@nakasec.org 202-670-1622
• Hispanic Federation: Joshua Silvia, jsilvia@hispanicfederation.org, 202-641-7186
• LCLAA: Victor Baten, Vbaten (at) lclaa.org, 202-508-6989
• LULAC: Jossie Sapunar, jsapunar (at) lulac.org, 202491 9388
• Mi Familia Vota: Lizette Escobedo lizettee@mifamiliavota.org, 858- 583-5014
• NCLR: Joseph Rendeiro, jrendeiro@nclr.org, 202-776-1566