President Obama and Key Congressional Leaders Discuss Steps to Move Immigration Reform Forward 

Washington, D.C. – Today, President Barack Obama met with a bipartisan group of Congressional leaders to discuss steps for passing comprehensive immigration reform. In response to the meeting, Karen K. Narasaki, president and executive director of the Asian American Justice Center, issued the following statement.

“We commend the President for his leadership on immigration reform and for putting together a path and a timetable to get legislation done by the end of this year or early next year. We believe he sent a clear message to congressional leaders that he is committed to leading and that it is time for the leadership in both parties in the House and Senate to commit to working together to pass workable comprehensive reform that reflects American values about fairness and justice.

At today’s meeting, the President appointed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to lead a group of House and Senate leaders to develop an outline for legislation.

We also applaud Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Representatives Joseph Cao (R-La.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who attended the meeting, for raising the issue of the need to clear the family backlogs and fix the family visa system as a critical component of comprehensive reform. Congressman Cao spoke eloquently about the importance of family reunification policy and used his own personal story about his sister to illustrate how the backlog has kept families apart. His sister’s children were stuck in the backlog so long that she was not able to come to the U.S. without leaving them behind.