PACT #39;s leader standing tall for Immigration Reform.
A hightlight of PACT #39;s press conference calling for the expansion for senior transportation in San Jose and Santa Clara County.
By: pactsj
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Lew: Broad bipartisan consensus immigration reform needed
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says immigration reform is "the right thing to do," in discussing the benefits of immigration reform on the U.S. economy.
Immigration reform will happen, and the public has grown far too pessimistic on its prospects, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told CNBC on Wednesday.
Lew said he believes lawmakers will come to a resolution on reforms languishing in Congress for the past year. After months of false starts, Lew said, there's now enough consensus among lawmakers to act.
"I personally believe there will be a resolution on immigration reform," Lew said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "And we're all going to have to work hard to make that happen."
Lew declined to attach his own economic value on reforms that would create a new path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.
He deferred to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which last year found that immigration reform would increase real GDP by 3.3 percent in 10 years and help drive down the federal debt.
Read More Jack Lew: 'Main Street' hasn't been made whole yet
Putting more workers "on the books" would increase the tax base and help fund cash-strapped programs such as Social Security and Medicare, Lew said.
"It's the right thing to do," Lew said. "It's the history of our country, how we've grown as a country. It's how we've prospered."
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The record level of deportations -- under President Obama, 2 million people have been deported --is the most contentious part of the currently stalled immigration reform debate. Lawmakers and activists have been asking for administrative relief for those who would qualify for legal status should Congress pass the immigration bill approved last year by the Senate. They argue that too many families are being broken apart and breadwinners deported over minor infractions.
Veronica Dahlberg, executive director at HOLA Ohio, a grassroots Latino organization in northeast Ohio, said she has for years seen immigrants who should be low on the administrations radar swept up in dragnets and channeled through the deportation system for things like a simple traffic violation.
Its finally shedding a light on what is really happening versus what the administration says is happening, Dahlberg said during a conference hosted by pro-reform group Americas Voice. The White House says deportations target serious offenders.
Only 20 percent of the deportation cases under President Barack Obama, or fewer than 400,000 people, were convicted of serious crimes, the Times analysis of administration records show. But the Times analysis isnt the only one offering some vindication to activists on-the-ground observations.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University also analyzed millions of deportation records since the launch of Secure Communities, a controversial program that formally began in 2008 to rid communities across America of criminal aliens who pose a public safety threat. TRAC found that in fiscal year 2013, only 12 percent of all deportees had serious Level 1 offenses, which by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agencys definition includes acts such homicide, kidnapping and sexual assault. The most serious convictions for approximately half the deportees were immigration and traffic violations.
Its so sad and incredible that all these things are happening, said Monica Garcia, regional coordinator for Border Network for Human Rights in Las Cruces, N.M. Deportation under Obama is just very sad.
Garcia said she is not opposed to law enforcement doing their job, but she wants them to follow the discretion principles under the current law and prioritize cases of serious offenders.
Our community is still in fear, she said. We feel insecure. We feel persecuted instead of being protected.
Even legal experts are concerned about the revelations of these independent analyses of administration data.
Those of us on the ground here, now we know were not crazy, said David Leopold, an immigration attorney in Cleveland and the past president of American Immigration Lawyers Association.
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Photo by Kris Connor
KRIS CONNOR/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Eliseo Medina speaks during the America Deserves a Vote on Immigration Reform Rally on the National Mall in Washington DC on April 9, 2014. The rally is asking for immigration reform to pass through the House of Representatives.
Photo by Kris Connor
KRIS CONNOR/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Eliseo Medina speaks during the America Deserves a Vote on Immigration Reform Rally on the National Mall in Washington DC on April 9, 2014. The rally is asking for immigration reform to pass through the House of Representatives.
Photo by Kris Connor
KRIS CONNOR/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Eliseo Medina speaks during the America Deserves a Vote on Immigration Reform Rally on the National Mall in Washington DC on April 9, 2014. The rally is asking for immigration reform to pass through the House of Representatives.
Photo by Kris Connor
KRIS CONNOR/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Eliseo Medina speaks during the America Deserves a Vote on Immigration Reform Rally on the National Mall in Washington DC on April 9, 2014. The rally is asking for immigration reform to pass through the House of Representatives.
WASHINGTON Arriving at the National Mall after a 30-state bus tour, Eliseo Medina on Wednesday got a crowd of immigration reform supporters roaring si, se puede and yes, we can in Spanish, English, Korean and Vietnamese.
The retired labor advocate is the acknowledged national leader of an effort to persuade Congress to pass a comprehensive bill with a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally.
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#WomenTogether demand Immigration Reform NOW!
By: domesticworkers
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