Hirono Renews Push for Immigration Reform One Year After Bipartisan Senate Bill Passes

Press Release

Senator Mazie K. Hirono released the following statement on the one-year anniversary of the passage of S.744, the Senate's immigration reform bill:

"Today marks one year since the Senate came together on a bipartisan basis to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill. As our country waits for the House to act, countless families remain torn apart, millions of hardworking people remain in the shadows and thousands of unaccompanied children have risked their lives to cross the U.S. border. The urgent need to fix our broken immigration system is clearer than ever. The Senate bill offers positive solutions that will make our immigration system more humane, our communities more secure and our economy stronger. The bill also includes an unprecedented investment in border security. I urge House Republicans to take action on this critical bipartisan bill."

As the U.S. Senate's only immigrant, Hirono worked closely with colleagues to shape the Senate's immigration reform bill in the Judiciary Committee and on the Senate floor, attaching 11 amendments to the bipartisan bill that passed last year. Since the bill's passage, Hirono has worked to support immigration reform by joining Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) in introducing legislation such as the Investing IN States To Achieve Tuition Equity (IN-STATE) for DREAMers Act. Hirono has also expressed interest to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to visit unaccompanied children who have been detained near the southern U.S. Border.

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