In the News
Two San Diego area congressmen are among the sponsors of a bill to rescue members of religious minorities threatened with violence by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria - possibly helping them join the large Middle Eastern immigrant community in eastern San Diego County.
San Diego's Mark Arabo, a spokesman for the Iraqi Chaldean Christian community in America, is working to gather congressional support for HR 1568, the Protecting Religious Minorities Persecuted by ISIS Act. The badly needed legislation is intended to make it much easier for Christian groups in Iraq and Syria facing genocidal attacks from Islamic State to apply directly to the U.S. refugee admissions program. Arabo says he's won promises of strong support from Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and Rep.
Seventy years ago, as World War II came to a close, America took the lead in addressing the most urgent challenge of the conflict's aftermath: finding homes and livelihoods for tens of millions of refugees and internally displaced persons. In addition to exercising global leadership in founding institutions like the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United States set a global example by accepting and integrating more than
1 million struggling or stateless people.
Cross-border advocates got a major wish fulfilled last week when the San Ysidro Port of Entry renovation and expansion project officially received $226 million in federal funding.
The three-phase, multi-year project aims to reduce congestion at the world's busiest land border by modernizing the port with more inspection booths, better road connections and new administration facilities, U.S. border officials said.
The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, along with congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle, came together on Dec. 23, 2013 to ask for one thing for Christmas: full funding for the next phase of the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry Renovation and Expansion Project in the fiscal year 2014 budget.
Earlier this week, a project to improve the San Ysidro Port of Entry got a $200 million-plus boost, thanks to a new spending bill passed by Congress.
This project will create jobs, grow our economy and reduce inefficiency — which is why it has been at the top of our personal priority lists, and was rated by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and SANDAG as the most important project for our region.
We need more like it happening around the country.
Three San Diego congressional representatives announced Tuesday remaining funds for the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry infrastructure project have been secured.
Congresswoman Susan Davis (CA-53), Congressman Scott Peters (CA-52), and Congressman Juan Vargas (CA-51) advocated in December for approval of the federal omnibus spending bill, which provides $226 million to complete the project at the world's busiest international border land crossing.
Since coming to Congress, we've fought for a budget that invests in infrastructure necessary to support our economic recovery. Funding for the San Ysidro Port of Entry has been at the top of our list. The hours-long wait times at our broken border cost the region an estimated $7.2 billion in economic output and 62,000 jobs annually.
The 113th United States Congress will begin on January 3, 2013. There are at least 12 new senators (3R, 8D, 1I) and 67 new representatives (29R, 38D).