{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/immigration-reform-and-the-importance-of-family", "Immigration reform and the importance of family", "2014-12-31", "2014", "2014-12", "Democrat", "House", "HI", "Mazie Hirono", "H001042", "www.hirono.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Immigration reform and the importance of family\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                    By:\u00a0\r\n                    Senator Mazie K. Hirono\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n            Wednesday, December 31, 2014\r\n            \n\t\n\r\n            \r\n            Family is central to the holiday season in America: spending days at home together, traveling to visit family, sharing meals, and exchanging gifts.\u00a0 Most of us take for granted that we\u2019ll be with family this holiday season\u2014and likely next holiday season as well.\u00a0 But, we must remember the millions of hardworking people living in the United States who are still waiting for Congress to act so that they, too, can be with their loved ones at this time of year.\r\nAs the United States Senate\u2019s only immigrant, the issue of immigration reform is personal to me.\u00a0 My mother brought me to America on the S.S. President Cleveland in steerage from Japan when I was almost eight years old.\u00a0 Like most immigrants, mom had a dream that she could provide a better life for our family in the United States.\u00a0 She was a single parent who escaped from an abusive marriage in Japan.\u00a0 We started with very little, but we had each other.\u00a0 And with our family support, we worked hard to pursue the American dream.\u00a0 My mother changed my life by bringing me to this country, a country which afforded opportunities for a poor immigrant family like ours to make a better life.\r\nUnder today\u2019s broken immigration system, many immigrants do not have the family support that is so critical to success\u2014and so fundamental to who we are as a country.\u00a0 There are Filipino World War II veterans still waiting to be reunited with their children; there are families separated by visa backlogs that last years and even decades; and there are mothers and fathers being torn from their children because they don\u2019t have the right paperwork.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 These families wouldn\u2019t have to endure another holiday season separated from their loved ones if we passed immigration reform.\u00a0 Despite receiving the Senate\u2019s bipartisan bill over a year ago, the House Republicans left Washington this month without even giving comprehensive immigration reform an up-or-down vote.\u00a0 However, there is still reason for hope.\u00a0 Just before Thanksgiving, President Obama used his executive authority to provide limited discretionary deportation relief to some undocumented mothers, fathers, and students living in our country.\u00a0 The President\u2019s executive action has given these families some peace of mind, albeit temporary, that they now won\u2019t be torn from their families and communities and be deported if certain conditions are met.\u00a0 As Nevada student and DREAMer Astrid Silva testified in a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the President\u2019s action that I chaired, at the very least she now knows that her dad will still be with her and her family this Christmas. Rather than stepping up to provide permanent solutions for immigration reform, my Republican friends are taking a page out of the Grinch\u2019s playbook.\u00a0 They\u2019re choosing to spend their energy working to undo the President\u2019s action at the expense of families like Astrid\u2019s, rather than constructively working with the rest of us to pass the commonsense, humane reform that Americans overwhelmingly support.\u00a0\u00a0 Immigration reform legislation should not only keep families together, it should be good for our economy.\u00a0 And it is.\u00a0 Even with temporary actions like President Obama\u2019s, allowing undocumented persons to come out of the shadows and work will generate billions in payroll taxes and is expected to lead to higher wages and increased worker protections for the entire workforce.\u00a0 The benefit to our economy and communities when all 11 million undocumented people can step out of the shadows, work legally, and pay their taxes will be additional billions to stimulate our economy. Immigration reform isn\u2019t just a Latino or border state issue.\u00a0 It matters to all communities, like Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and all states\u2014including my own state of Hawaii.\u00a0 Immigration reform should matter to all of us who understand the importance of family as we make it through life.\u00a0 I hope this holiday season, when we\u2019re enjoying dinner or opening gifts or sitting in the pew at church, that we can think about those in this country who are still waiting to one day share those moments with their families, too.\r\n\r\nSen. Hirono is the only immigrant in the U.S. Senate.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/immigration-reform-and-the-importance-of-family"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9995591826736927, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}