For Immediate Release
June 8, 2007
Contacts:
Becky Belcore, KRCC, 773.506.9158
EunSook Lee, NAKASEC, 323.937.3703
YuSoung Mun, YKASEC, 718.460.5600
Dae Joong Yoon, KRC, 32.937.3718
NAKASEC Statement on the Senate Cloture Vote
(Los Angeles, CA) The failure of cloture vote at the Senate yesterday is indicative of the serious lack of leadership and commitment within the Senate to push forward immigration reform. Moreover, it is a direct result of the flaws of the Kennedy-Kyl immigration compromise (S.1348) that destroys families by dismantling the family based immigration system, undermining workers rights by implementing a guest worker program with no path to citizenship, and jeopardizing our nation's future by introducing an unworkable & unattainable point system.
What is truly hanging in the balance over immigration reform is not just the future of immigrants, but the future of our nation. As such, instead of engaging in political finger-pointing, the Senate leadership should clearly recognize its historic tasks and regroup its members in order to earnestly work on real immigration reform.
The failure of cloture vote is not the last nail to the coffin that buries real immigration reform. Many in our communities have worked hard to make this political moment for real immigration reform happen and Congress, both the House and Senate, owes it to the American people to continue the process. In the coming days, we in the Korean American and Asian Pacific American community will be mobilizing to DC for a series of actions and activities. We will once again remind Congress that immigration reform is about providing 12 million undocumented immigrants with access to workable legalization, keeping families together, devising a reasonable immigration system for future flows, protecting workers rights and civil rights, and, most importantly, keeping America at its best.
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