Senator Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres) issued the following statement regarding the passage of Senate Joint Resolution 8 (SJR 8), which encourages immigration reform at the federal level:

 “There is no questioning that our immigration system is broken. We must deal with immigration directly in a compassionate and practical manner. It is inconceivable to think we can deport 12 million undocumented immigrants, many of which have lived most of their lives here paying taxes, working, and trying to achieve the American dream, even when the legal path to citizenship is broken.

 "It is our role as elected leaders to change the status quo when things are not working. We need to act immediately if we want to keep the problems with illegal immigration from growing. I am encouraged by the work that we are finally seeing on the Federal Level. I support the actions that are being taken and want California to be at the forefront of immigration reform.

 "This is why I was proud to co-author SJR 8. We have an opportunity to express to Congress and the President just how important immigration reform is to the State of California. We must recognize the hard work and contributions of our immigrant population and remember that we are all immigrants to this great country.”

 Senator Cannella spoke on the Senate floor about SJR 8. The video of the speech can be found at: http://cssrc.us/web/12/multimedia.aspx