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Garamendi Joins Discharge Petition to Compel Vote on Comprehensive Immigration Reform

March 26, 2014

WASHINGTON, DC – Spurred by robust support in his district and a nationwide movement to fix our nation’s broken immigration laws, Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA) today joined over a hundred of his colleagues in signing a discharge petition to compel House Republican Leadership to allow a vote on comprehensive immigration reform.

H.R. 15, the House comprehensive immigration reform bill that is very similar to what passed the Senate with a bipartisan 68-32 vote, already has 200 cosponsors, including three Republicans. An additional 30 House Republicans have indicated that they support a comprehensive approach. Congressman Garamendi is convinced that a comfortable bipartisan majority exists in the House to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill, but thus far, the House Republican Leadership has refused to allow a vote.

“Our current immigration system is broken. It’s time to fix it,” said Congressman Garamendi.

“I support comprehensive immigration reform that keeps families together, meets the needs of agriculture, higher education, and the tech sector, secures our borders, stands up for DREAMers, cracks down on abusive labor conditions, and offers a pathway to earned citizenship for otherwise law-abiding immigrants already contributing to our economy,” Garamendi said. “No one will get everything they want out of a comprehensive approach, but it’s clear to me that business as usual is not the solution. America needs action. We have had enough debate. Now, we need to vote on immigration reform.”

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, comprehensive immigration reform would reduce the deficit by $900 billion over the next two decades. Foreign-born entrepreneurs were founders or co-founders of more than a quarter of technology and engineering companies started between 1995 and 2005. These companies directly created 450,000 jobs.