POLICY FOCUS
House Must Act on
Immigration Reform
With one-third of unauthorized immigrants
living in poverty and reports showing that legalization and citizenship would increase imAdvocates gather in front of the U.S. Capitol on June 27, 2013, to pray for compassionate,
migrants’ earnings 13 percent or more, immicomprehensive immigration reform.
gration reform is an important hunger issue.
Moreover, the biblical mandate to “welcome the stranger” House for a vote. Many House Republicans, including many
implores us as Christians to seek reform of our country’s within the leadership, have made strong statements indicatimmigration system. The Hebrew word for immigrant—ger— ing their support for passing reforms this year.
appears 92 times in the Bible.
There are two periods when immigration reform has its
It has been nearly a year since the Senate passed S. 744, best chance of passing out of the House: the next couple of
the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigra- months and early this fall. A number of House Republicans
tion Modernization Act. Despite widespread support for ad- wanted to delay voting for reforms, scared off by potential
vancing some sort of immigration reform, the House has yet primary challengers. Now that the primaries are ending, a
to act as a whole. However, significant movement has taken short window of opportunity exists before the August recess.
place behind the scenes.
Another short window of opportunity exists in September,
The Senate passed one large comprehensive immigra- after the August recess but before members return to their
tion bill, but the House decided to take a piecemeal ap- districts for the final campaign spree before the November
proach, opting instead to pass a number of separate bills elections.
dealing with different aspects of our immigration system.
Members of Congress must feel political pressure to act.
The House Judiciary Committee has passed five border- They must feel there is a political cost in their November
security measures. More importantly, three other bills lie in elections if they are seen as not acting on immigration rethe wings as representatives negotiate final details and pre- form. This is not a question of policy. It is a question of polipare for the proper moment to introduce their legislation. tics and members hearing from their constituents. Members
These bills focus on granting citizenship to DREAMERS of Congress need to be going to leadership, urging them to
(undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as bring immigration bills up for a vote in the House because
young children by their parents or relatives and who have they are feeling too much pressure back home not to do so.
lived most of their lives here), providing a path to legalizaDuring Bread’s 2014 Lobby Day (June 10—see page 4
tion for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently for more information), we will be increasing this pressure.
in the U.S., and addressing low-skilled workers.
One of the “asks” or topics during Lobby Day will be urging
For Congress to carry out comprehensive immigration House members to press for votes on immigration reform,
reforms, the House must act. The votes exist. Speaker John primarily those bills that will have a measurable impact in
Boehner needs only to bring legislation to the floor of the reducing hunger.
6 Bread | May-June 2014
Joseph Molieri/Bread for the World
Immigration: A Hunger Issue