Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–May 23, 2013.  Today, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL), issued the following statement after a meeting with his Democratic and Republican counterparts in a bipartisan group who are negotiating an immigration reform bill in the House.

Today we kept things moving forward and I believe we will prevail.  You can deter justice, you can slow justice, you can defer justice, but you can’t stop it.

I’ve been fighting for immigrants for years.  We’ve won battles, we’ve lost battles.  I can tell you today that we are making progress, and we’re going to win justice for immigrants and a sensible policy for the American people.  We’ll get there.  And if political infighting between the parties derails immigration reform, we all lose.

A bipartisan bill in the House has the best chance of passing the House and the best chance of producing a good immigration reform proposal when conferenced with the Senate’s bipartisan bill.  A bipartisan process in the House allows Republicans and Democrats to have their input and arrive at a workable solution to fixing our broken immigration system.

The need for immigration reform is immediate and the goal is within our reach.  Today, more than 1,000 people will be deported, another person is likely to die in the desert, and the exploitation of workers and the sexual exploitation of women by their employers will continue.  This is not a political issue to be won or lost but a human rights and civil rights crisis to be solved with all deliberate speed.  I want the best bill possible in the shortest amount of time and do not care which party or politician gets credit, so I will continue to work towards a bipartisan bill in the House.

Source: Gutierrez.house.gov