|
Asian American Justice Center Will
Continue to Work With the President and
Congress to Pass Comprehensive
Immigration Reform This Year
WASHINGTON
— Statement of Karen K. Narasaki,
president and executive director of the
Asian American Justice Center, on
President Obama’s State of the Union
address:
We want to applaud President Obama for
calling on Congress to pass health-care
reform, a jobs bill and legislation to
end the "don’t ask, don’t tell" military
policy. We also note that he called for
continued work to reform our immigration
system this year. In his
address, President Obama made clear his
ongoing commitment to immigration reform
noting "we should continue the work of
fixing our broken immigration system -
to secure our borders, enforce our laws,
and ensure that everyone who plays by
the rules can contribute to our economy
and enrich our nation."
We need strong leadership from the
president to get workable legislation
this year. As is the case with many of
the initiatives the president included
in his speech, it is smart economic
policy as well as the right thing to
do.
Estimates point that one in every 10
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is
undocumented. Giving undocumented
immigrants a path to citizenship could
inject up to $1.5 trillion of GDP into
our struggling economy over 10 years, a
new study predicts.
One only need look at the massive
backlog in legal visa applications that
would reunite families to see the system
is broken. Families should be together.
Immigrants with family support are
better able to pool their resources to
buy homes and start job-creating
businesses. Our broken system only
encourages massive illegal immigration.
We must replace it with one that
provides a steady, manageable flow of
legal immigration that puts families
back together, rather than keeping them
apart.
In 2009, 1.1 million Asian-owned firms
provided jobs to 2.2 million employees
and had receipts of $326.4 billion.
Asian American immigrants are eager to
do their part to help turn around the
economy.
We will continue to work with the
president and Congress to make this
long-awaited priority a reality.
Karen Narasaki is available to comment
on the State of the Union address. To
book Ms. Narasaki as a guest on your
show or for interviews, please contact
Leonie
Campbell-Williams at
202-492-4591.
# # #
The Asian American Justice Center (www.advancingequality.org)
is a national organization dedicated to
defending and advancing the civil and
human rights of Asian Americans. It
works closely with three affiliates –
the Asian American Institute of Chicago
(www.aaichicago.org),
the Asian Law Caucus (www.asianlawcaucus.org)
in San Francisco, and the Asian Pacific
American Legal Center (www.apalc.org)
in Los Angeles – and 102 community
partners in 47 cities and 24 states in
the country.
|
