House Comprehensive Immigration Bill

Rep. Luis Gutierrez has announced that he will introduce a comprehensive immigration reform bill on Oct. 13th. Windy City Times reported that LGBT groups are lobbying him to include in his bill languages similar to the Uniting American Families Act.

Rep. Gutierrez is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and sits on the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law. He's also a co-sponsor of the UAFA.

However, aside from not knowing if UAFA would be included in his CIR bill, what's also unclear is whether Rep. Gutierrez has the backing of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had stated in the past that she would not start on comprehensive immigration reform unless the Senate first acts on it. It appears that Rep. Gutierrez is acting on his own without the blessing of Speaker Pelosi, much like Rep. Jerry Nadler and others introducing the Defense of Marriage Act Repeal despite knowing it's not on Pelosi's priority list.

It'd be nice if Rep. Gutierrez could include UAFA in his CIR bill, but ultimately, the fate of Comprehensive Immigration Reform lies in the hands of the Senate, as it has been always. Senator Chuck Schumer is expected to introduce the senate version of the CIR bill, which is where I think we should focus our energy on.