Mark Udall, who has championed fixing the nation's broken immigration system, decried the news today that the U.S. House of Representatives has declared immigration reform dead and forced the president to act alone. Udall said this profound failure of leadership runs counter to Colorado and the nation's overwhelming support for comprehensive action on immigration.
"The refusal of the U.S. House of Representatives to bring the U.S. Senate's bipartisan immigration-reform bill up for a vote is unacceptable. Every member of Colorado's congressional delegation should join the discharge petition in the House to force a vote on immigration reform," Udall said. "The current, broken immigration system is not working for Colorado -- and Coloradans keep saying that something needs to change. The House of Representatives should not abdicate its responsibility to reform our immigration laws to the president. I plan to continue working with Colorado's immigration advocates to push for common-sense solutions that help fix our broken immigration system."
Udall has led efforts to press the U.S. House of Representatives to act on comprehensive immigration reform, including hosting Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and local immigration advocates in Denver on the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Senate passing its reform bill. He also recently urged the president to take steps to halt the deportation of immigrants whose only crime is seeking a better life for themselves if the House refuses to provide Colorado's immigrants a tough, but fair, pathway to earned citizenship.