WASHINGTON — Thousands of immigrants came to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a day of lobbying and an afternoon rally calling for comprehensive immigration reform.
The event was timed to the unveiling of an immigration bill by Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois and chairman of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
With President Obama’s stated commitment to immigration reform, advocates for immigrants said they hoped to revive a debate that has been overshadowed by other priorities, like the economy and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As deportations continue to rise, immigration reform is needed now, they said, to allow illegal immigrants to obtain legal status and to stop families from being torn apart.
“We need a bill that says if you come here to hurt our communities, we will not support you; but if you are here to work hard and to make a better life for your family, you will have the opportunity to earn your citizenship,” Mr. Gutierrez said in a prepared statement. “We need a law that says it is un-American for a mother to be torn from her child, and it is unacceptable to undermine our work force by driving the most vulnerable among us further into the shadows.”