Come on, Congressman Heck, dream a little DREAM with us

Comprehensive immigration reform is not a complicated issue, and in fact, it’s not a controversial one. It is an issue that the vast majority of Nevadans support, that many are willing to fight for, and that a bipartisan coalition of leaders have taken action to vote for, with one glaring exception: Rep. Joe Heck.

Earlier this month, Congressman Heck penned an op-ed in the Las Vegas Review Journal seeking to “clear the air” about his position on comprehensive immigration reform, and in doing so left more questions than answers.

One thing, however, is perfectly clear: Rep. Heck is opposed to passing comprehensive immigration reform and has made every excuse not to fully support it.

Comprehensive immigration reform means keeping our families together, not breaking them apart through the legislative process. It means creating an achievable pathway to citizenship — a word Heck refuses to use in his op-ed — for all who aspire to it and are willing to work for it. It means ensuring that we fix our broken system as a whole, refusing to leave one family member, one small business owner, one man or woman fighting for the American Dream, behind.

Over the last year, we have seen plenty of talk from Congressman Heck on this issue. As he stated in his op-ed, he’s repeatedly spoken on this subject at public events and in closed-door meetings with constituents. While his efforts to raise awareness of immigration reform are appreciated, his comments have been contradictory and even hypocritical.

One cannot state that he did not vote to deport “Dreamers” and then admit that the program they voted to defund stopped unnecessary deportations. No politician could ever say he has never supported a “flawed” bill when there is clearly no such thing as perfect legislation, especially when Heck’s own proposed bill results in families being torn apart.

Congressman Heck has had ample opportunities to join Democrats and Republicans in the last six months to come up with a workable solution for our nation’s broken immigration system.

Instead of joining the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” and instead of joining other House Republicans in co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation, Heck has taken a series of half-hearted measures whose only aim is to placate, not to “enact meaningful legislative solutions,” as he claims he wants.

If Heck truly supported comprehensive immigration reform, he would have offered to introduce legislation that solved problems facing Nevadans every day, instead of segregating a small portion. If Heck truly supported comprehensive immigration reform, he would have worked with Democrats and Republicans immediately after the Senate bill passed to work out disagreements and bring legislation to the House floor for a vote.

Yet unfortunately, the only action we have seen from Congressman Heck in 2013 has been voting to deport “Dreamers,” rationalizing it by stating that he would rather put political process before the lives of people.

Nevadans and pro-reform allies across our nation will continue to work with Democrats and Republicans to pressure House Speaker John Boehner to bring real comprehensive immigration reform legislation to the floor for a vote. We have waited for Congressman Heck to act for long enough.

We can only hope that there are enough true champions of reform in the House of Representatives to counter Heck’s inaction and inexcusable position.

Danny Thompson is executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO. Yvanna Cancela is political director of the Culinary Local 226. Astrid Silva is an immigration organizer for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.