Bill Text: OR HJM11 | 2013 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urging Congress to pass legislation providing pathway to citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2013-07-08 - In committee upon adjournment. [HJM11 Detail]

Download: Oregon-2013-HJM11-Introduced.html

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     77th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2013 Regular Session

NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
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 LC 3653

                     House Joint Memorial 11

Sponsored by Representative CONGER

                             SUMMARY

The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.

  Urges Congress to pass legislation providing pathway to
citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.

                         JOINT MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States and the Senate and the
  House of Representatives of the United States of America, in
  Congress assembled:
  We, your memorialists, the Seventy-seventh Legislative Assembly
of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled,
respectfully represent as follows:
  Whereas of the nearly 5.5 million children of illegal
immigrants in the United States, approximately one million
children were brought here illegally by their parents at a young
age; and
  Whereas children brought to the United States have a very
limited, ineffective and onerous pathway to gaining United States
citizenship despite the experience of growing up, being educated
and working with other United States citizens; and
  Whereas children without legal status in the United States face
difficult and often insurmountable obstacles to such resources as
gaining education and employment, accessing health care and
acquiring a driver license; and
  Whereas according to studies, because of their lack of legal
status, even those children of illegal immigrants who achieve a
high degree of academic success and grow up in the United States
have difficulty finding a career that matches their educational
training; and
  Whereas 21 percent of students enrolled in Oregon kindergarten
through grade 12 public schools are Latino; and
  Whereas there are currently over 200,000 Latinos in the
workforce in Oregon, representing 10.5 percent of the workforce;
and
  Whereas a recent survey showed a 78 percent increase in the
number of Latino-owned businesses in Oregon during a five-year
period, up from 6,360 businesses in 2002 to 11,338 businesses in
2007; and
  Whereas the Oregon Center for Public Policy estimates that
undocumented immigrants in Oregon earned between $2.3 billion and
$4.5 billion in 2011 and contributed between $154 million and
$309 million in state and federal taxes; and

  Whereas providing an expedited and efficient pathway to
citizenship for children of illegal immigrants and the subsequent
expansion of the legal workforce could result in unprecedented
economic productivity and strengthened global economic
competitiveness; and
  Whereas the incentive of citizenship would lead to greater
security and stability with required national security and
criminal background checks for those pursuing legal status and
citizenship; and
  Whereas children of illegal immigrants who attain citizenship
would legally earn income, pay taxes and own homes in the United
States, contributing to funding government programs and
stimulating growth in the national economy; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
  Oregon:
  (1) The Congress of the United States of America is
respectfully urged to pass legislation improving and expediting
the United States immigration system to provide children of
illegal immigrants with a pathway to citizenship.
  (2) A copy of this memorial shall be sent to the President of
the United States, to the Senate Majority Leader, to the Speaker
of the House of Representatives and to each member of the Oregon
Congressional Delegation.
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