The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) issued a statement regarding recent moves by House Republicans to address the immigration reform issue. NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguia commended Republicans for finally agreeing to open up a dialogue on the issue, but sayid Republican leadership needs to step forward with concrete legislative action to address the Latino community's needs.

NCLR advised Republican leaders that the organization would not accept legislation that did not include a pathway to citizenship and would not accept any status that left Latino immigrants as "second class citizens."

These comments came as a response to House Republicans laying out a set of "principles" to guide the debate on immigration late this week. House Republicans are currently at their annual retreat and looking for considerations to an upcoming conversation on immigration reform. Current word coming out of the retreat is that the Republicans are considering a "path to legal status," but not "citizenship" for undocumented immigrants currently in the United States.

That is an option that will probably not rest well with the National Council of La Raza.

"Putting principles down on paper demonstrates that House Republican leadership is ready to get serious about working with their colleagues to find a long overdue solution," stated Janet Murguia, President and CEO of NCLR in a written statement. "However, we won't know what these principles mean until the House produces a legislative proposal that clearly outlines solutions to fix our broken immigration system and to address the 11 million aspiring Americans."

"We have been urging the House leadership to come to the table with a proposal and we hope that this step will allow them to roll up their sleeves and get to work producing legislation that can garner votes from both sides of the aisle. The Latino community is interested in seeing workable solutions that are in the best interest of the country and that uphold our values as a nation," concluded Murguia.