JLC Supports President Obama's Efforts to Reform "Severely Flawed" U.S. Immigration System
President Stuart Appelbaum Calls on Congress to Enact Comprehensive Reform
November 21, 2014 - New York, NY: Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Jewish Labor Committee, just issued the following statement:
As an organization founded by working-class Jewish immigrants and their children, with roots in the labor movement, we know that immigrants enrich our country, culturally, economically, and socially. The Jewish Labor Committee has for many years supported meaningful and comprehensive immigration reform. While the United States Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill, the House of Representatives has unfortunately refused to act.
Aware that this is a pressing need directly affecting millions of people who work in the United States, their families and their communities, we therefore applaud President Obama's efforts to take steps to ensure that families are not torn apart, that undocumented immigrants can emerge from the shadows, that those who have committed crimes are held to account for those crimes, and that the borders of the United States are made more secure.
We call on all members of Congress to act NOW to make the changes announced by President Obama in the severely flawed immigration system of the United States permanent, and work in a bipartisan fashion to enact comprehensive reform as envisioned by the legislation that is still stalled in Congress. It is the right thing to do, and the time is now.