Lawmakers, Pastors Push for Immigration Reform

Several major players on Capitol Hill are insisting that immigration reform is not dead.

According to the New York Daily News, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is promising passage of a bill this summer.

"We will have an immigration bill - it may not be exactly the Senate bill - on the floor of the House," Schumer vowed Monday. "We will come to an agreement. They will put that bill on the president's desk for President Obama to sign into law."

Also, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, mocked lawmakers for being afraid of the issue at an April 25 event in his district.

"We get elected to make choices," the Huffington Post quoted Boehner. "We get elected to solve problems and it's remarkable to me how many of my colleagues just don't want to. ... They'll take the path of least resistance."

Meanwhile in Washington, evangelical pastors who support immigration reform gathered for a worship service Tuesday and took time to lobby their lawmakers. They characterized reform as a moral imperative.

"We've been involved as a church in lots of immigration services, helping to process people as a result of deferred action, teaching ESL, teaching citizenship classes. We have a free legal clinic, a free medical clinic," Rich Nathan, senior pastor of Vineyard Columbus in Ohio, said.

"But no private organization, no faith community can do what Congress needs to do. Congress needs to fix the broken immigration system," he charged.

In Virginia Tuesday, the state attorney general announced children of illegal immigrants can receive in-state college tuition as long as they meet state residency requirements.

Currently, 18 other states allow similar programs.