October 02, 2013

CÁRDENAS STATEMENT ON HOUSE IMMIGRATION BILL

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

 

CÁRDENAS STATEMENT ON HOUSE IMMIGRATION BILL

 

(Washington, DC) -- Congressman Tony Cárdenas (D-San Fernando Valley) today released a statement following the introduction and his co-sponsorship of H.R. 15, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act in the United States House of Representatives:

“American businesses and American workers will benefit from this law,” said Cárdenas. “Comprehensive Immigration Reform will create 120,000 American jobs a year for the next ten years and would pour more than $830 billion into our economy. Immigration reform is the single biggest boost we could give to our fragile economy, to help American families. This is a bill that deserves a full vote in both houses of Congress and should be put on the President’s desk as soon as possible.

“This reform bill is the result of a bipartisan effort and the policies in it have bipartisan support. Democrats and Republicans all understand the need to give American businesses certainty about their workforce, to defend our borders and to fix a broken system. This bill does that.

“My father came to this country and worked in the number one industry in California; agriculture. He built our family’s American Dream by working hard and raising a family that produced psychologists, teachers, engineers and even a Congressman. I am particularly happy to see farm worker provisions in the bill to protect hard-working families and to help strengthen our American family farms, who are still the number one, and most important, industry in our state.”

Protections in the legislation, for both farmworkers and farmers, are identical to those in the Senate legislation, and were negotiated and endorsed by American Farm Bureau Federation, USA Farmers, Western Growers, the National Milk Producers Federation and others.

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