Two weeks before an expected Senate debate on the new immigration bill is set to take place, the leader of the Asian-American voting bloc in Congress wants to make certain that its priorities end up being reflected in whatever form of the bill that comes out of the debate.
“I am focused like a laser on ensuring that family unity is given the consideration it deserves as we move forward with comprehensive immigration reform,” says US Representative Judy Chu from California. Chu is a Democrat whose district in Los Angeles County is 37% Asian-American and she claims that it is crucial to expand and protect the ability of legal permanent residents and US citizens to have the right to sponsor immigration for immediate family members.
Chu was the very first Asian-American woman to be elected to Congress and is the chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, with her parents having immigrated from the Guangdong province in China in the late 1940s to settle in California. There will be no action from the House until any bill gets cleared by the Senate, most likely in the summer, although the fight to win public support has been going on for several months now, primarily over the issue of granting a path to citizenship to the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States.
Chu says that while she supports the goals of the immigration reform bill, she intends to make certain that the concerns of Pacific Islanders and Asian-Americans do not get overlooked.