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BPC Immigration Task Force: Real Immigration Reform Requires Legislation

Washington, D.C. – The co-chairs of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Immigration Task Force – former Governors Haley Barbour and Ed Rendell and former Secretaries Henry Cisneros and Condoleezza Rice – released this statement, reaffirming that lasting immigration reform must come from congressional legislation:

“Our task force includes members of both political parties who strongly believe that our current immigration system is broken. While we may have differing views on tonight’s executive action by President Obama on immigration, we agree that real and lasting immigration reform must come from congressional legislation, passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by the president.

“Our task force continues to remain committed to Congress’ taking up and passing immigration legislation that secures the border, controls the flow of unauthorized immigration, reforms our legal immigration system to provide legal avenues for workers, maintains a tradition of family-based immigration and affords a means for those currently undocumented immigrants to get right with the law and earn a legal status.

“These types of permanent reforms can only be made through legislation, so Congress and the president will need to work together to achieve them. Until then, our country will continue to suffer from the effects of our broken system—disruption to our communities and failure to reap the economic benefits that a working immigration system can bring.”

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