Issue Position: Immigration

Issue Position

Our immigration system is broken and in need of major repair. In fact, it's been thirty years since Congress modernized the immigration system to reflect the changing times.

The future of our local and national economy will be shaped by how we solve the issue of America's broken immigration system. We owe it to our families, we owe it to our economy, and we owe it to the ideal that America is a land of liberty, opportunity, and justice.

Congressman Pallone believes that the architecture of our immigration system must be one that meets the needs of the 21st Century and is built to last for generations to come.

The U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill, and now, it's the House's turn to act. Members of Congress from both parties must work together to pass commonsense legislation that will secure our borders, protect our workers, require employers to comply with common sense laws, unite families and offer hardworking immigrants an earned pathway to become taxpaying American citizens.

Congressman Pallone is a co-sponsor to the comprehensive immigration reform bill, H.R. 15, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. While Pallone believes that this is not the perfect immigration reform bill, it is a compromise bill that takes important steps towards a more equitable immigration system and which should have no trouble gaining bipartisan support.

The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act:

Contains the same provisions from the bipartisan Senate-passed bill that protect our workers, unite families, and offer hardworking immigrants an earned pathway to citizenship.

Also contains the same provisions from the bipartisan Senate-passed bill that reform our visa programs to ensure fairness and American competiveness.

For securing our borders, contains the provisions of the bipartisan McCaul-Thompson border security bill that received unanimous approval from the House Homeland Security Committee.

Fixing our broken immigration system is essential for the character of our country and the strength of our economy. A White House report illustrates how comprehensive immigration reform will create jobs, boost economic growth, increase productivity, strengthen Social Security, raise wages, and reduce the deficit, among other benefits. A non-partisan CBO report noted that immigration reform would decrease the federal deficit by billions if enacted.

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