U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) released the following statement on President Obama’s plan to be announced this evening to protect up to five million undocumented immigrants from deportation.  Last week, Rep. Pascrell joined his Democratic colleagues in signing a letter to President Obama in support of executive action on immigration.

“I applaud the President’s decision to take action within his legal authority to help address our broken immigration system. As the grandson of immigrants and representing one of the most diverse districts in our country, I know how important this is to the millions of families in pursuit of the American Dream.  Speaker Boehner has been sitting on a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate, which I cosponsored, since June of 2013. Despite repeated urging to do so, he has done nothing to move this bill through the House, nor have he and his Republican colleagues proposed any alternative. I believe that because of this irresponsible and cowardly inaction, it is imperative that the President act.

“For many House Republicans, changes to our immigration system present the opportunity to capitalize on fear and hate to score political points. In reality, policies like the Senate bill and the President’s executive order provide responsible solutions to prevent families from being torn apart and people brought to the U.S. illegally as children from being deported from the only country they’ve ever known as home. There are many aspects of our immigration system that the President cannot fix through executive action.  It is my hope that my Republican colleagues in the House will stop playing politics and work constructively so we can pass comprehensive legislation.”

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