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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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Immigration reform will happen: Jack Lew

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.

Excerpt from:

Immigration Reform Advocates: Heavy-Handed Obama Deportations Hit Minor Offenders, Not Serious Criminals

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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Advocates push for immigration reform despite resistance

#WomenTogether demand Immigration Reform NOW!

By: domesticworkers

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#WomenTogether demand Immigration Reform NOW! - Video

Jeb Bush's defense of immigration reform is already changing the race, whether or not he opts to try a Bush three-peat in 2016. He's flushed a highly divisive issue out into the open.

Jeb Bush is going to run for president in 2016, unless he decides that he wont. Or is it the other way around hes out, but reserves the right to jump in? In any case thats the (hazy) bottom line from the ex-Florida governors appearance on Sunday at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. At the talk, Mr. Bush did not announce a candidacy but said hell decide whether or not to try for the presidency by the end of this year.

Washington Editor

Peter Grier is The Christian Science Monitor's Washington editor. In this capacity, he helps direct coverage for the paper on most news events in the nation's capital.

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It turns out that not running has generated way more interest than running, he said, to laughter from the crowd assembled to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his father George H.W. Bushs administration. Im not that smart, it just kind of happened that way.

Bush said his decision would depend upon two simple things: whether he could run a campaign with an optimistic message and not get sucked into the vortex of the mud fight and whether its OK for his family.

All the tactics of a campaign arent nearly as relevant because I dont think you can predict the context of a campaign this far out, said Bush, the son of one president and brother of another.

However, for all his studied indecision as to whether hell throw his heritage in the ring and try for a Bush three-peat, Bush did do something which could well reverberate throughout the GOP primary season. He repeated that hes a strong defender of the nationalized Common Core education standards, and that he supports immigration reform over the objections of the conservative wing of the party.

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Immigration reform 'love': Did Jeb Bush comment change shape of 2016 race? (+video)