Border & Immigration

Arizona Rep. Confident Immigration Reform Will Pass In 2013

By Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez / Senior Field Correspondent

Published February 19, 2013 at 1:56 PM PST

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

Arizona Rep, Kyrsten Sinema addresses a community forum in South Phoenix.

Rep. Sinema on White House immigration plan leak

Rep. Sinema speaks to Phoenix African American and Latino community group.

While speaking at an African American and Latino community forum in South Phoenix, Arizona Rep. Kyrsten Sinema said Congress is prepared to develop a comprehensive immigration bill.

The Brown and Black Coalition gathered to discuss upcoming local legislation that could impact minority groups. Among the topics was immigration reform.

Sinema said regardless of any White House immigration proposal, Congress will take the lead on immigration reform.

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“Last week, in the President’s State of the Union address he very clearly said, 'you write an immigration bill, you send it to me, I’ll sign it,'” Sinema said. “And I think most of us in Congress, in both the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats, have taken him at his word.”

Sinema was recently appointed to a group of lawmakers that is tasked with rounding up the 218 votes needed to pass an immigration bill.

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Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez

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Nadine is a Senior Field Correspondent (Phoenix) who focuses on stories throughout the southwest and issues that directly affect Arizona’s Latino community. She is an Emmy-nominated journalist and a Telly Award winner. She is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism and earned a Masters in Education from Northern Arizona University. She comes from a lengthy background in communications. Her broadcasting career includes Arizona’s PBS station KAET-TV. She was a producer and correspondent for the public affairs programs Horizon and Horizonte. While in Chicago, she hosted on-air bilingual pledge drives for WTTW Channel 11 (PBS), making her the only bilingual pledge host at the time. She was a general assignment reporter for Tribune Company’s ChicagoLand Television News, Univision affiliate WCIU-TV Channel 26 and WYCC-TV. She also worked for Comiskey Park (now U.S. Cellular Field), the home of the Chicago White Sox and United Center (Chicago Bulls) Scoreboard Operations. She co-produced a bilingual television parenting program on both Chicago’s Telemundo and WYCC-TV Channel 20. Aside from her broadcasting career, she served in various roles in public relations, community outreach, and marketing. Her extensive public sector experience extends to several departments of the City of Chicago, Mayor’s Advisory Council on Latino Affairs, and the U.S. Congress. Other professional experience includes Vice President of Community Outreach for the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee. Currently, she mentors and teaches public radio writing and reporting to inner city students and participates in journalism workshops for high school students throughout the Phoenix area. Her goal is to teach journalism in a higher education institution, while continuing her mentorship initiative. She was born in Puerto Rico to Puerto Rican and Belgian parents, and raised on Chicago’s southside in La Villita (a predominantly Mexican community). This diverse background taught her valuable lessons in various Latino cultures and informs her insight into issues of great interest to Latino families and business community.

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