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(Entravision) Washington D.C. – El representante demócrata Luis Gutiérrez, habló esta tarde ante líderes locales y grupos de apoyo de la reforma migratoria en el Capitolio estatal de Richmond.
http://www.tvwfdc.com/2014/05/28/luis-gutierrez-apoya-una-reforma-migratoria/
Published May 28, 2014
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Congressman Gutierrez greets supporters during an immigration rally in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, May 28, 2014. (AP)
The immigration debate was at a fever pitch again Wednesday, with groups from different sides of the issue taking aim at House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, who sent a flier to voters in recent days boasting of shutting down a plan to “give illegal aliens amnesty.”
The flier, distributed in his district by his re-election campaign, comes as Cantor is under pressure ahead of his June 10 GOP primary — and as the narrow window for action on immigration legislation in the House closes.
At the same, President Obama came under fire for – proponents for more lenient immigration laws say – backpedaling on a vow to review deportation practices and possibly limit them to dangerous criminals.
Cantor’s flier underscores how vexing the issue is for the GOP, seen by critics as the roadblock to comprehensive immigration reform.
Advocates on the left are accusing Cantor of standing in the way of getting overhaul legislation through the House 11 months after the Senate passed a sweeping bipartisan bill.
Cantor’s tea party opponent in Virginia’s GOP primary, Dave Brat, convened on Wednesday a press conference on the steps of the Virginia Capitol to label Cantor a top cheerleader for “amnesty” in the House, citing Cantor’s support for action on certain immigration measures.
A short time later, in a conference room inside the state Capitol, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a leading proponent of overhauling immigration laws, held his own press conference to accuse Cantor of standing in the way of progress in the House on a measure that would address border security as well as a path to citizenship for the 11.5 million immigrants living in the country illegally.
“Allow America to have a vote,” Gutierrez implored. Several immigrants who are facing deportation orders joined him.
Obama, meanwhile, drew the ire of advocates of more lenient immigration policies after his administration’s announcement Tuesday night that it is delaying until late summer the results of a review of the nation’s deportation policy.
Advocates had met with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in recent weeks and pushed for an end to the high rate of deportations, particularly the detention and expulsion from the country of undocumented immigrants who have no criminal background and are not national security threats.
The administration had indicated that it would review its deportation process and perhaps focus it on dangerous criminals, something it had said several times before but has not fully implemented.
That emboldened House Republicans to argue that they can’t trust the current administration to enforce laws and that Obama is undermining prospects for a broader immigration overhaul in Congress.
The White House sees a narrow window this June and July for Congress to act on immigration before the August congressional recess, which is when, traditionally, incumbents begin to seriously focus on midterm elections this November. So Obama directed Johnson not to release the results of the deportation review until that window closes.
Cantor’s flier references Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and says, “Barack Obama and Harry Reid: Pushing amnesty to give illegal aliens a free ride. Conservative Republican Eric Cantor is stopping this liberal plan.”
That strong message was a changed tone for Cantor, who has repeatedly voiced support for giving citizenship to certain immigrants brought illegally to the country as children. Last year Cantor joined Gutierrez and other lawmakers on a three-day tour of immigration-related sites in New York aimed at increasing awareness of the issue.
Brat dismissed the new tone from Cantor as politics and flip-flopping.
“Eric Cantor saying he opposes amnesty is like Barack Obama saying he opposes Obamacare,” Brat said.
Cantor’s campaign spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Based on reporting by The Associated Pres
Posted: Updated:
RICHMOND, Va. — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) faced two competing attacks on Wednesday near his home district in Richmond. The first: That he’s a liberal on immigration posing as a hardliner just to get primary election votes. The second: That he’s one of the biggest impediments to immigration reform in the House.
Facing a June 10 primary challenge from longshot Republican Dave Brat, Cantor’s campaign boasts that he blocked a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate, bolstering his tough-on-immigration credentials. As majority leader, Cantor has given no immigration reform measures a chance for a vote in the House, either as a comprehensive bill or in smaller measures, like the recently-blocked Enlist Act.
But Cantor also takes fire from the right. He has spoken in support of giving legal status to undocumented young people who came to the United States as children, and was part of the House GOP leadership that released principles earlier this year that would allow undocumented immigrants to gain legal status.
The question in Richmond on Wednesday was who Cantor really is on immigration: The behind-the-scenes schemer for reform, or the man intent on killing it?
Outside the state house, primary challenger Brat railed against Cantor’s supposed push for comprehensive immigration reform, telling reporters that “Cantor has been the number one cheerleader in Congress for amnesty.” As proof, Brat cited a visit to the state house on Wednesday by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a consistent critic of Cantor and other Republican leaders blocking a vote on immigration reform.
Cantor’s campaign put out fliers earlier this week touting his anti-”amnesty” stance, saying he stopped the “liberal plan” of President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) “to give illegal aliens a free ride.”
Brat said those fliers masked Cantor’s true views on immigration, and argued that Gutierrez’s visit helped reinforce the message that Cantor wants — that he’s fighting reform. Brat said Cantor and Gutierrez were “in cahoots,” although he later admitted he had no evidence that the two coordinated Gutierrez’s appearance in Richmond.
“Congressman Gutierrez is here to set up a great deception that will allow Eric Cantor to claim he is opposed to amnesty, at the eleventh hour, just two weeks prior to the primary on June 10th,” Brat said.
Gutierrez dismissed the idea that he was coordinating with Cantor. He told reporters he was invited to Richmond by pro-immigration reform group CASA de Virginia, and didn’t speak to Cantor about it.
“No,” Gutierrez told reporters with a laugh when asked if he and Cantor were in cahoots. “But I’d like to work with him on comprehensive immigration reform so I could be accused of that.”
At Gutierrez’s event, Cantor was certainly not painted as a proponent of immigration reform. Gutierrez was flanked by activists — many undocumented, some in deportation proceedings — holding signs reading, “Cantor: the one man blocking immigration reform,” and “Eric Cantor: Give us a vote.” A few were in tears discussing their immigration status. At one point, people took out their phones to call Cantor’s office en masse and ask him to bring immigration reform for a vote.
“People might think we’re here because there’s a primary next week,” Gutierrez told the group. “Nothing could be be further from the truth. The primary is really irrelevant to us. We’re here because the majority leader, Eric Cantor, controls the agenda of the Congress of the United States. And we have come here to say … stop being an obstacle, stop being in the way.”
House Republicans are likely to face increasing pressure after the White Houseannounced Tuesday that it would not release a report on how to change deportation policy until the end of the summer, to give House Republicans time to move on immigration reform.
Gutierrez said that the delay was “a mistake,” but added that he thinks Obama is willing to make a major change if no legislation comes. He said it indicates the president still thinks there’s a chance to get legislation.
Whether there is a chance depends in part on Cantor and other House leaders. That means majority leader’s immigration views are likely to stay in the spotlight, even after the primary.
Ray Allen, a spokesman for Cantor’s campaign, said Cantor “has been very consistent” with his views on immigration reform, opposing a large bill, but saying there are instances where the parties can find common ground. Allen said Gutierrez had a “legitimate beef” with Cantor because he opposed the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill.
“Dave Brat, on the other hand, is just lying,” Allen said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/28/eric-cantor-immigration_n_5406582.html
Posted at 8:33 p.m. on May 2
RICHMOND, Va. — Political forces from the left and the right gathered at the Virginia state Capitol Wednesday with a shared objective: Ratchet up the immigration pressure on Eric Cantor.
On one side were the pro-immigration activists — led by an Illinois Democrat — calling for the House majority leader to at least allow legislation an up-or-down vote. On the other was a political rival all-too-ready to hang the word “amnesty” around the Virginia Republican’s neck.
In the middle of the debate, walking a political tightrope with less than two weeks to go before a closely-watched primary and as the clock steadily ticks down on the 113th Congress, is Cantor.
“We have come here to say … stop being an obstacle. Stop standing in the way,” said Luis V. Gutiérrez, D-Ill., a leader in the national fight to pass an immigration overhaul bill who was invited to speak at Wednesday’s event by the group CASA de Virginia. “Become a hero of our community and become someone who can help the tens of thousands of Virginians who need help because of this broken immigration system.”
Half an hour earlier, Cantor’s June 10 primary opponent David Brat held a brief outdoor news conference on the steps of the building, where he had a different perspective on Cantor.
“Eric Cantor has been the No. 1 cheerleader in Congress for amnesty,” Brat told a half-dozen reporters. “Eric Cantor has spearheaded the amnesty push in the House. … There is no Republican in this country who is more liberal on immigration than Eric Cantor.”
Conservatives’ biggest turncoat? Immigration’s most stubborn opponent?
It wouldn’t seem Cantor could be both, but the No. 2 Republican in the House has tripped alarms on both sides of the sprawling, complicated and emotional debate in recent weeks.
Cantor was once considered an advocate for passing a comprehensive rewrite of the immigration code. He spoke in support of legislation to prevent deportations of the so-called DREAMers — young illegal immigrants who in many cases were brought into the country by their parents — and was said to be working on a “KIDS Act” with Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va., He helped draft House GOP principles earlier this year meant to guide the chamber’s approach to an immigration overhaul.
Then, last week, Cantor blocked consideration of an amendment to the fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act that he said he supported in the past. The amendment would have provided a pathway to legal status for undocumented immigrants who serve in the military.
And, this spring, as part of its efforts to fend off a primary challenge from the right, Cantor’s own re-election campaign sent out mailers touting his conservative credentials in “stopping the Obama-Reid plan to give illegal aliens amnesty” which would “ignore the rule of law in this country and reward people for illegal behavior.”
The rhetoric is more politically loaded than typical for Cantor and other members of House GOP leadership, who have been trying to promote a kinder, gentler Republican Party ahead of the midterms and, more significantly, the 2016 presidential election.
But Gutiérrez on Wednesday brushed aside Cantor’s harsher tone of recent weeks and reminded the crowd in Richmond — many of whom were Cantor’s constituents — that the powerful Republican has the ability to be helpful on immigration if he puts aside anxieties about the political consequences.
“What Eric Cantor represents is the future of the Republican Party,” Gutiérrez told the 70-some people assembled at the Capitol, cautioning that the GOP could become irrelevant if Cantor and others don’t act to pass legislation to benefit the burgeoning Latino voting bloc.
Brat, meanwhile, said Cantor was desperately trying to appeal to hard-line conservative voters ahead of the primary, and he even accused Gutiérrez of being “in cahoots” with Cantor in holding an event in Richmond “to set up a great deception that will allow Eric Cantor to claim he is opposed to amnesty, at the eleventh hour.”
Cantor’s campaign spokesman, Ray Allen, disputed accusations of inconsistency: “Gutiérrez, from his point of view, has a legitimate beef with Eric Cantor because he blocked the Senate’s amnesty bill; David Brat is just lying,” he told CQ Roll Call in a phone interview.
Scrutiny over Cantor’s position on immigration at this stage in the game comes as stakeholders are watching whether President Barack Obama acts, as he has promised he will, unilaterally to curb deportations should Congress prove unwilling or unable to act on its own.
The dueling press events on Wednesday came one day after news broke that Obama would delay releasing a report by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson detailing actions the president could take to stop certain deportations. Instead, the White House, fearing that executive orders would alienate GOP lawmakers already criticizing Obama for undermining the legislative branch, will give House Republicans until August to advance an immigration overhaul measure on their own.
The White House decision to wait sparked outcry from immigrant activists outside Capitol Hill, and Gutiérrez on Wednesday also expressed frustration.
Gutiérrez, who has not shied away from criticizing Obama for his deportation policies or from taking his own party to task for not acting on immigration when they had a super-majority in the House, Senate and White House, called the delay a “mistake.”
He spoke to reporters and advocates while flanked by over a dozen supporters holding signs that read, “Eric Cantor: The One Man Blocking Immigration Reform.” Several women brought their young children with them, some of whom wore T-shirts that read, “Don’t Deport my Mom.”
At least three women in attendance were facing deportations, with one facing a deadline of June 6 to leave the country. A 26-year-old mother of a son and daughter who are both U.S. citizens, she said she had been discovered as undocumented last winter while she was driving a car without a license. She, and a few others, were wearing thick court-ordered ankle bracelets to track their whereabouts, which they hid from view under the hems of their pants.
Delaying the release of the Homeland Security report and taking some of the pressure off Obama to stop deportations, Gutierrez said, “denies the ability of people in this room to fight the deportations. There are orders of deportations against people in this room in the coming weeks, in the coming days.
“They don’t have time for Eric Cantor,” Gutierrez said, his voice rising, “and the Republican majority, to finally give it a vote. We need to fight the deportations each and every day.”
http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/on-immigration-the-pressure-mounts-for-eric-cantor/?dcz
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Advocates on the left are accusing Cantor of standing in the way of getting overhaul legislation through the House 11 months after the Senate passed a sweeping bill. Cantor’s tea party opponent, Dave Brat, claims that Cantor backs amnesty.
Cantor is not viewed as vulnerable, but Brat’s campaign has gotten attention and Cantor is moving to shore up support.
The flier references President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and says, “Barack Obama and Harry Reid: Pushing amnesty to give illegal aliens a free ride. Conservative Republican Eric Cantor is stopping this liberal plan.”
Cantor and House GOP leaders have said they want to deal with the immigration issue, but they’ve advocated a step-by-step approach rather than the comprehensive bill backed by Obama and Reid. They’ve made no move to bring legislation to a vote and appear increasingly unlikely to act this election year.
Cantor, seen as next in line to be House speaker, has sent mixed signals on immigration of late, giving ammunition to critics on both sides. Last week he helped to block legislation giving citizenship to certain immigrants here illegally who serve in the military. GOP supporters were trying to add the measure to an annual defense bill; Cantor opposed that move but said he still supports the goals of their legislation.
Cantor’s campaign spokesman, Ray Allen, said Cantor continues to support certain pieces of immigration legislation but that his opposition to the Senate bill is “important information for the voters.”
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
April 23, 2014
Press contact:
Maria Jose Sandoval
Doug Rivlin
Communications Director, Cong. Gutierrez
National Latino Hero to Address Virginians at Critical Moment for Immigration Reform
- Congressman Luis Gutierrez to Speak at State Capitol -
What: Policy Speech
Where: Capitol Square, House Room 3, 1000 Bank Street, Richmond, VA 23219
When: Wednesday, May 28, 1pm
Who: Congressman Luis Gutierrez (IL 4), Delegate Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington), Delegate Delores McQuinn (D-Richmond), Delegate Rosalyn Dance (D Petersburg), Rabbi Ben Romer, Michel Zajur, Virginia Hispanic Chamber, Sandra Cook, Virginia Organizing, Lindolfo Carballo, CASA de Virginia, dozens of directly impacted constituents of Congressman Eric Cantor, and more
(Richmond, VA) — Virginians will gather this Wednesday to hear from the man broadly considered the Latino civil rights hero of this generation. Congressman Luis Gutierrez’ speech in Richmond will underscore the critical moment we face for immigration reform and the particularly important role that Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor (VA 7) needs to play in reforming the system.
The immigration debate is particularly critical in Virginia as the calendar advances toward congressional elections. Considered a swing state, Virginia immigrants are already motoring economic growth and investment and the issue of reform is followed by residents and business leaders alike. Still, passage of reform would create even greater economic growth. Recent research out of the University of California showed that if reform were to pass, Virginia wages of unauthorized workers would increase by $1.2 billion, generating an additional $371 million in tax revenue and creating 27,000 new jobs.
Published on May 16, 2014
Catia Paz es una inmigrante de El Salvador. Vive en Virginia con su marido y sus dos hijas, sin embargo el fantasma de la deportacion la persigue. Y es que recientemente el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional, ICE le envio una orden de deportacion. La comunidad hispana lucha a su lado para que su familia no se una a la larga lista de familias que han sido separadas por esta administracion.
12 | 05 | 2014
A pesar de ser una persona sin record criminal, Catia Paz, madre de dos hijas, vivió más de un mes de angustia al tener una fecha límite para abandonar el país.
Catia Paz no va a ser separada de sus hijas por lo menos por un año más. La información fue dada a conocer por el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés).
“Yo estaba en el trabajo y recibí una llamada de ICE, así se llama la oficina donde ponen los brazaletes, y me comentó que fuera y que me había extendido un año más y que me iban a remover el brazalete”, explicó Catia.
Casa de Virginia y diferentes grupos comunitarios le brindaron todo su apoyo a esta causa que era, según sus palabras, totalmente injusta como comentó Lindolfo Caraballo, coordinador de Casa de Virginia.
“El caso de Catia Paz es un caso que representa a millones de familias en el país que ahora están sufriendo por la misma cosa. El caso de Catia paz es el de una mujer trabajadora que vino muy joven a este país, tiene dos niñas, su esposo, es dueña de casa, es un modelo de las personas inmigrantes de este país”, afirma Carballo.
A pesar de ser una persona sin record criminal, Catia vivió más de un mes de angustia al tener una fecha límite para abandonar el país, pero su fe y contar con el apoyo de los grupos comunitarios logró revertir la deportación.
“Yo le agradezco a Dios, a Telemundo, a Casa de Maryland, a Casa de Virginia, a todos lo que estuvieron pendiente de mi caso e hicieron esto posible”, afirma agradecida Catia.
© ZGS 2014
WFDC News
05/13/2014 6:51 AM
Actualizada: 05/14/2014 12:13 PM
(Entravision) Washington D.C. – Catia Paz pudo resolver su caso de deportación junto a la ayuda de Casa Virginia.
The Mother’s Day was a special day for the undocumented immigrant Catia Álvarez Paz, because it could happen that important party on Saturday May 10 with his two young daughters born in States without fear of being deported to El Salvador.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Friday 9th Paz’s lawyer that it had changed its decision to deport the immigrant mother and now remain for another year in the United States.
“I feel happy, imagine, I was worried,” Paz told El Tiempo Latino, who said on Saturday celebrated the news with members of CASA of Virginia, in Arlington, then in his church.
ICE, according to a community organization CASA of Virginia, was based on the discretion of the government policies of Barack Obama to focus primarily on people with criminal records and not in cases of “low priority” as the Peace.
“The weekend celebrated the best Mother’s Day was made possible by many people in the community who fought for me and my family,” Paz said.
Together with her husband and daughters Germán Reyes Genesis 5 years, and Alison, 2 years, Paz attended a May 1 protest deportations at the White House and did so with the electronic bracelet that had given him the authorities ankle to track your steps.
“My family is willing to continue to fight for all until the immigration crisis is resolved,” noted Salvadoran mother.
The director of CASA of Virginia, Gustavo Torres, said “Peace Catia is a hero to many immigrants in the region who daily are devastated by deportations.”
Catia’s father made a request for political asylum and included, but ICE dismissed the case and the immigrant mother lost her work permit.
Paz and her husband have been married for nine years and integrate the worship ministry in a Christian church.