Immigration Reform Movements

It is encouraging to see people meeting and gathering around our country to discuss and plan meaningful immigration reform to welcome immigrants to America in a safer, more efficient way than we previously have.

Ohio Community Group

A group called Braver Angels recently held a bipartisan group conversation to find common ground on immigration. The meeting is available on the PBS News website and can be viewed here: In Ohio, a bipartisan community group seeks common ground on immigration reform

Screenshot of PBS report on a bipartisan group discussion to find common ground on immigration.

In that meeting, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), said, “I would venture to say 80, 85 percent of Americans can agree on what the right thing to do is when it comes to immigration and border security. The challenge is getting something that reflects the will of the people through Congress.”

Frank Hoffman, a Republican voter, said in that same meeting, “I would hope that what we're seeing with the — how immigration is impacting our society, taxing our social services, our hospitals, our schools, that hopefully there's going to be some desire to face what's happening and to try to bring some resolutions for it.”

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently issued a Special Message on immigration from the Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore. “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” the statement reads in part.

“We recognize that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good. Without such processes, immigrants face the risk of trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Safe and legal pathways serve as an antidote to such risks,” the statement further proclaims.

Archbishop Richard Henning, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, speaking in the Special Pastoral Message on Immigration by the Bishops of the United States.

You can view the video by clicking this link: Special Pastoral Message on Immigration by the Bishops of the United States

New Democratic Coalition

On August 25, the New Democrat Coalition Immigration & Border Security Working Group unveiled the New Dem Immigration & Border Security Framework, a comprehensive path forward for Congress to secure the border and reform the immigration system “with new commonsense policies to secure our borders, boost local economies, and expand legal pathways in a humane, cost-effective way,” according to Working Group Chair Gabe Vasquez.

Representative Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, chair of the New Democrat Coalition Immigration & Border Security Working Group.

In the preface to the New Democrat Coalition Framework, it says that the actions of our current administration “are antithetical to our shared American values, to our identity as both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.”