Rep. Gutierrez: Congress Must Stay for Thanksgiving, Christmas to Pass Amnesty

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), one of the most prominent supporters of comprehensive immigration reform in the House of Representatives, wants lawmakers in Congress to stay through Thanksgiving and Christmas to create a pathway to citizenship for all of the country’s illegal immigrants. 

“I think it’s unconscionable that the Congress of the United States is going to go away for Thanksgiving with their families, we’re going to go away for Christmas with our families, while our broken immigration system continues to destroy tens of thousands of families,” he said on Fusion. 

Gutierrez made his comments as reports are coming out that Congress may be done legislating for the calendar year. 

Though the Senate has passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of Americans, the House has yet to act on immigration. House Republicans are reportedly working on piecemeal bills to go to conference with the Senate, where a pathway to citizenship would prevail. 

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has also indicated that supporters of immigration reform may make a final push on the legislation after the Republican primaries next year when more Republicans who may be willing to support immigration reform will not have challengers from the right.