Norton Offers Support for Hispanics and Other Immigrants Rallying for Reform (March 21, 2010)

Norton Offers Support for Hispanics and Other Immigrants Rallying Today

(Sunday, March 21, 2010)

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) issued the following statement today when health care reform on the House floor, and immigration reform crowds on the National Mall, made it impossible for her to reach the immigration reform rally to offer her support:

“Count me with my Hispanic and other immigrant friends, allies, and constituents in reminding Congress and the administration that comprehensive immigration reform is too important to drop off the nation’s priority agenda. Health care reform, on the floor today, deserves the attention it is finally receiving. However, I pity our country if we fail to attack the several great issues before us at the same time. For 10 years, immigration reform has been crying out with increasing urgency for fairness for immigrants. By dropping the ball on immigration reform, we have allowed the issue to fester and grow worse. We must rescue our country from its inconsistent actions of freely using immigrant labor, while leaving them and their families in tragic limbo and fear once they are here.

“We did not give up on health care reform because it was difficult, and the difficulty of immigration reform must no longer deter us either. I applaud the thousands of immigrants and other Americans who marched in the nation’s capital today. As their leaders said, immigrants have learned from the civil rights movement. Immigrant rights, too, will not come without the present struggle. I have been proud to participate in the civil rights movement, and I am pleased today to join immigrants in seeking justice long due to them.”