Jimmy Gomez Quotes
We must continue to honor America's commitment to keeping families together and not turn our backs on refugees and asylum seekers.
Gomez, Jimmy. "34th Congressional District election: Jimmy Gomez." Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2017.
The issue of admission of relatives of citizens had, in the 20th century, become controversial as some political forces worked to restrict immigration. The result of politicizing this issue was that the relatives who would receive immigration priorities would change every time Congress legislated about anything involving immigration and asylum. Immigrants from some countries could have their aunts and uncles get priority while other countries it was only siblings, children and parents. And still others would be children only. There was also racial and ethnic discrimination in that nations with white populations received a broader right to have relatives immigrate than non-white.
Many in Alabama were distressed that other states were benefitting from the waves of immigrants to America but relatively few were going to Alabama. They wanted more whites to diminish the proportion of Negroes. By the beginning of 21st century, many people in Alabama had turned against immigration as they feared that immigrant Hispanics and Blacks together would be a majority in the state.
At that time the Republicans had adopted a political strategy of not passing any significant legislation so that they could claim the Democratic President Barack Obama could not lead or do anything. They were committed to limiting Obama to one term. The Republicans controlled the House and had enough Senators to filibuster anything that happened in the Senate. During that period, there was hardly any legislation passed—one of the lowest points of Congressional paralysis and partisanship in American history.
Jimmy C. Gomez is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for California's 34th congressional district since 2017. The district is anchored in eastern Los Angeles, including downtown. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the California State Assembly from 2012 to 2017. On June 6, 2017, he won a special election to replace Xavier Becerra in Congress, after Becerra resigned to become Attorney General of California. On July 11, 2017, Gomez was officially sworn in. He was reelected in 2018 and in 2020.
