New America Media, News Report, Posted: Nov 29, 2012

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has rejected two immigration bills presented by Republican legislators: the ACHIEVE Act and the STEM Jobs Act. During a news conference on Wednesday morning, the CHC announced its nine-point plan for immigration reform, including a reference to bi-national, same-sex couples, who are currently not able to apply for a green card through their partners the way heterosexual married couples can.

The nine principles include: having millions of undocumented register with the government, submitting to a background check, learning English and civics, paying taxes, recognizing bi-national, same-sex couples in family unification efforts, attracting high skilled immigrants, building on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program by offering a path to citizenship for those immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, a path to citizenship and labor protections for immigrant agricultural workers, labor protections for all immigrant workers, smart enforcement that targets criminals, and employment verification that protects privacy.

The plan was not without its critics. Maegan Ortiz writes for Politic365 that these points are actually "repackaging of old ideas." "Some of the CHC’s principles," she writes, "actually pander to more conservative elements of immigration reform advocates, including the language requirement and giving too much credit to stop-gap, temporary measures like DACA, whose effectiveness are still debatable."