Today, Rep. Pete Aguilar hosted an Immigration Roundtable Discussion with local stakeholders to highlight prevalent issues that families and institutions face when dealing with the United States’ immigration system, as well as problems faced by the immigrant community in the Inland Empire. Representatives from immigration advocacy organizations, higher education institutions and foreign governments participated in the discussion, which was held at the Mexican Consulate in San Bernardino.

“Immigration reform is a bipartisan issue—Ronald Reagan taught us that,” said Rep. Aguilar. He added, “Fixing our immigration system will allow us to keep families together, bring millions of people into our economy, and will allow us to continue to set the moral standard that every other country in the world looks to for leadership.”

Sylvia Juarez Magana, a Professional Expert at the Dreamers Resource Center at San Bernardino Valley College attended and said, “The congressman’s roundtable really took into consideration the entire landscape of immigration and how students are affected by immigration policy discussions.”

Isabel Sanchez, a Policy Advocate for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) participated in the roundtable and commented, “It was a pleasure attending the immigration roundtable meeting hosted by Congressman Pete Aguilar. I’m glad to have voiced issues that our immigration community faces and to know that we have his support on many issues discussed.”

Rep. Aguilar is a steadfast supporter of Comprehensive Immigration Reform with a pathway to citizenship and has continuously advocated on behalf of the issue. Last year he was a leading voice against House Republicans’ attempts to shut down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, and he coauthored a letter to then-Speaker John Boehner demanding a vote to keep the agency open. He has also called on DHS to end to the expansion of the Family Detention Program of undocumented women and children. Rep. Aguilar has signed four amicus curiae briefs in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) programs as they are considered by the Supreme Court. 

 

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