Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus met with White House officials this past week week to pass on recommendations for immigration reform.
Congresswoman Judy Chu, the caucus chair, and Congressman Mike Honda, along with other CAPAC members, discussed the need for reform and related immigration issues affecting the Asian American community with Obama aides Cecilia Muñoz and Neil Eggleston. In a statement released after the meeting, Chu described the talks as “candid and productive.”
“While we are disappointed by the President’s decision to delay administrative actions to improve our immigration system, we strongly believe that the Administration will live up to its promise and do as much as it can within the confines of our law to alleviate the pain immigrant families are feeling every day,” Chu said.
Along with her fellow Democratic colleagues Raúl M. Grijalva, John Lewis, and Jan Schakowsky, Chu is urging other representatives to sign a letter to President Obama about ending the deportation of undocumented immigrants. Chu and Honda also met with Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to push the need for executive action on immigration reform.
“Our discussion of CAPAC’s recommendations, including prosecutorial discretion, expanding DACA [deferred action for childhood arrivals] relief, and alleviating the backlog through humanitarian parole, were received well by the executive officials, but listening is not enough,” Honda said in a statement. “The President must commit to action.”
Earlier this month, President Obama announced that he would wait until after the midterm elections in November before addressing immigration reform.