Senators to introduce immigration reform bill to Congress

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A bi-partisan group of eight senators are preparing to introduce an immigration reform measure to address the growing issue of immigration in the U.S. Meanwhile, thousands of U.S. immigrants and their families gathered Tuesday at the LA Convention Center to welcome in the newest group of U.S. Citizens.

Tuesday was a special day for the 5,000 immigrants who took their oaths and celebrated the final step in becoming an American citizen. It was especially emotional for Celina Ewing, the widow of a US Army soldier who died in 2007. Ewing started the application process in 2005 and was at the Convention Center Tuesday to complete it.

“My parents and myself moved here when I was only 12-years-old, so really this is all I know, this is my country,” Ewing said fighting back tears. “And so I’m just glad that it’s happening.”

Like many of the other newly naturalized citizens, Ewing says she is relieved to be done with the process.

While this group of immigrants can forget about the immigration process, there are still millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally who cannot. This week congress is set to hear the first measure to reform immigration laws since 2007.

The bill is likely to include an established path to citizenship, additional border control funding, and changes in visa programs for highly skilled workers, guest workers, and family visas.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is one of the key senators involved with the bill. He has answers to the bill’s opponents, who say it rewards those here illegally by giving them a better chance to become a citizen.

“Well first of all I think it is important to understand it doesn’t give anything, it allows people access to the legal immigration system,” Rubio said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos.

“Number two, some people won’t qualify. They haven’t been here long enough, they have committed very serious crimes, they won’t be able to stay. Number three is, all people will get is the opportunity to apply for things – to apply for a legal status, which isn’t awarded on day one. There is a process for that.”

A process that Celina Ewing waited seven years to complete. Ewing came to the U.S. at the age of 12 but says now she can finally call herself an American. 

“It means the world. You know, this is what I’ve always wanted,” Ewing said tearfully. “I don’t know how to explain it, it’s just you kind of feel whole. Like I feel like I belong.”

The immigration bill is expected to be filed later this week and could change the process immigrants go through to call themselves Americans.