For months, local supporters of immigration reform have been working to persuade Congressman Greg Walden (R-Hood River) to give his full support to the Senate bill passed earlier this year.
“We all know we’ve done a lot – and it’s worked,” Valenzuela said. “Walden has walked on the other side.”
Valenzuela told the committee that Walden, who in the past has expressed a reluctance to support immigration reform, has now indicated he favors it – but not unconditionally.
“He says he supports something piecemeal – but we don’t know what that means,” Valenzuela said.
Valenzuela said farm workers and other immigration reform supporters are continuing to put the pressure on Walden in an attempt to get him to come out strongly in favor of the Senate bill. A 50-mile march that began on Sunday in Madras will finish today at Walden’s office in Bend. Valenzuela said Walden is a key play in the House of Representatives on immigration reform and his support could influence other key Republicans on the issue.
“We need him to be a real leader and bring other people to the table and fully support immigration reform,” he said. He added that a delegation of Hermiston farm workers will take part in the last stages of the march to emphasize the importance of farm workers to the region’s agriculture industry. Valenzuela also asked the Hispanic Advisory Committee to write a letter urging the congressman to support “fair and sensible” immigration reform. The committee voted Monday night to write the letter.
Earlier this year, the city of Hermiston sent a letter to President Obama and the Oregon Congressional delegation asking them to support immigration reform. Hermiston Mayor Dave Drotzmann recently sent a second letter to Walden.
Valenzuela said Hermiston, with its dependence on agriculture, should be ground zero in Oregon when it comes to immigration reform.
“We need to keep pushing,” he said. “We need a road to citizenship and stop the separation of families.” He said that he expects a debate on the Senate bill to begin on the House floor in October. He hopes to have Walden firmly on the side of immigration reform before then.
Also at Monday’s Hispanic Advisory Committee meeting, the committee voted to draft a letter supporting Blue Mountain Community College’s upcoming capital improvement bond measure. If passed, the measure would fund the construction of three new centers designed to train students for good-paying jobs in the ag sector. One center would be a precision irrigated ag center in Hermiston, as well as a food processing training center in Boardman and an applied animal sciences center in Pendleton.
The measure would cost taxpayers 31 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The bond measure would be a renewal of an already existing measure passed in 1999 that is due to expire next year and would not be a new tax.
