REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE CALLS ON SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER, LEADER MCCARTHY, AND HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO BRING BIPARTISAN COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM UP FOR A VOTE

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Senior Member of the House Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees, marked the one-year anniversary of the United States Senate passing bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) by calling on House Republicans to stop blocking the legislation from coming up for a vote:

"Today I am calling on Speaker Boehner, Leader McCarthy, and House Republicans to bring to the floor for a vote H.R. 15 – legislation that would help secure our border, protect our workers, unite our families, provide an earned pathway to citizenship, and create jobs.

"Three months ago today, I signed onto the House Democrats' ‘Demand A Vote' petition to bring up H.R. 15, bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform for a vote, and today, we will mark the one-year anniversary since our United States Senate overwhelmingly passed comprehensive immigration reform by a 68-32 vote. These 365 days, however, have been nothing but cherry-picking excuses and inaction from House Republicans as they have time and again failed to address our broken system with commonsense solutions.

"Instead, Republicans have four times voted on the House floor on anti-immigrant legislation, including Republican Congressman Steve King's repugnant and deplorable measures, which place the lives of aspiring Americans, our nation's DREAMers, in peril and back into the shadows of fear. It is time for Speaker Boehner to stop blocking this sensible bipartisan reform, and allow a vote to create jobs, empower small business, fuel innovation, raise wages, reduce the deficit by nearly $1 trillion, and energize our economy. It is time for us to fix our broken immigration system, and build a system that respects our history and our values as a nation.

"H.R. 15 has 200 co-sponsors, including 3 Republicans. Yet Republican leadership continues to prevent the House from holding a vote on this necessary and popular legislation. Comprehensive immigration reform has enjoyed widespread support from law enforcement, faith leaders, agriculture groups, veteran groups, Nobel Laureates, the business community and the American people across party lines. On March 26, House Democrats filed a "Demand A Vote" petition, which has garnered 192 signatures, calling on Speaker Boehner to act, but he continues to remain the obstacle to getting a bill done this year.

"By blocking immigration reform, Speaker Boehner and House Republicans are single-handedly holding back our economy and refusing to build upon the Senate's progress. Rather than catering to the most extreme, anti-immigrant wing of their Conference, House Republicans should listen to the outpouring majority of Americans and give the public a vote."

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