2013 has kicked off with excellent news on the topic of US immigration. On January 3rd the 113th Congress was sworn into office, with immigration reform expected to be one of the key legislative priorities.
President Obama has recently restated his commitment to making immigration reform one of the top priorities for his second term in office, pledging to introduce new legislation within the first year that will reform the system in what he termed as “a comprehensive way.”
A bipartisan committee of senators, known as The Group of Eight, including Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Michael Bennett, Bob Menandez, Jeff Flake, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Mike Lee are currently working on proposals for this reform.
The leading independent non-partisan organization known as The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, which is committed to having a discourse on worldwide issues via contributions to opinion and the formation of policy, public learning and leadership dialogue, is to host a summit in order to discuss the perspective on immigration in the Midwest. The summit will take place at the National Press Club in Washington on Thursday February 28th.
The summit is to include the release of a report, entitled Task Force on Immigration and US Economic Competitiveness: A View from the Midwest, which has been prepared by the independent bipartisan group that contains 53 members, who began their work on the proposals all the way back in the December of 2011.