Washington, DC – Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) stressed the urgency for action on a comprehensive solution to our dysfunctional immigration system during a telephonic briefing with New York and national immigrant advocates. Rep. Crowley recently led 111 Democrats from the House of Representatives in sending a letter to President Obama to express their support and willingness to work with the President to make comprehensive immigration reform a legislative reality. The call was organized by the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan pro-immigrant advocacy organization in Washington.

"We need to maintain the momentum for comprehensive immigration reform, and I’m glad that we have advocates for reform who are willing to fight for what is best for our nation," said Rep. Joe Crowley, U.S. Representative for New York’s 7th District. "Through our letter, 110 of my fellow colleagues and I sent a clear message to President Obama: we need his leadership to move immigration reform forward and we stand ready to support comprehensive reform that balances our nation’s security needs with a realistic and humane solution for the estimated 12 million undocumented people already living in the United States. A lot of good work is being done in Congress now, and I am looking forward to working with Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Make the Road New York, and the New York Immigration Coalition, as well as advocates from across the nation, to keep the issue at the center of our work in Congress. This is a moral imperative – the time is now."

"Every day that passes without immigration reform is one more day in which our friends, neighbors, and loved ones have to live in deep worry and fear. Our community members are paying the price for our collective failure to fix this dysfunctional immigration system," said Javier Valdes, Deputy Director of Make the Road New York, an immigrant-based group with over 7,000 members in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. "But we won’t stop until we achieve real reform, and we applaud Representative Crowley for his vital effort to mobilize his House colleagues in support of immigration reform for all the decent, hardworking immigrant communities throughout our nation."

"Latino and immigrant voters made their voices loud and clear during the last election: they are demanding just and humane immigration reform for their communities. These voters are growing impatient; they have high expectations for change. Delaying reforms will only harm more families and hurt us as a nation. We’re proud that Congressional leaders from New York are playing pivotal roles in moving immigration reform forward, and we join them in calling for strong and decisive action from President Obama and the House and Senate leadership," said Ms. Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, an advocacy group representing nearly 200 organizations in New York State.

"The demand for reform is growing and the political muscle behind it is getting stronger", said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum. "Across the country, communities are energized and increasingly engaged in immigration reform advocacy efforts. Diverse constituencies including labor, business, faith and civil rights and immigrant rights groups understand the fierce urgency of revamping our immigration system so it restores the rule of law, upholds our nation’s values, treats immigrants with dignity, and responds to our nation’s economic and labor needs."