Organizing for Action, a nonprofit formed after the 2012 election to support President Barack Obama's policy agenda, will begin a major push for comprehensive immigration reform this week, The New York Times reported.
OFA has already attempted some mobilization on the issue, but the group will now increase its efforts in a major way. The Times reported that the organization has 7,000 stories from undocumented immigrants, including so-called Dreamers brought to the United States as children, that will be distributed on social media.
The Senate plans to begin discussing comprehensive immigration reform in April, after a bipartisan group called the "gang of eight" puts out its bill on the issue. The senators aim to release the bill early next month, after coming to a deal on the specifics this week and drafting the rest of the legislation over the two-week recess.
Obama has said that the plan must include a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, along with streamlining the legal immigration process, improving enforcement and increasing border security measures.
While Republicans in the bipartisan group, along with several other members of their party, support allowing eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants, many others do not. Immigration reform advocates are expecting some opposition groups to mobilize against the effort.
A number of polls have found that there is majority support for a pathway to citizenship in the country. A survey released by the Public Religion Research Institute last week found that 63 percent of Americans said undocumented immigrants who met certain criteria should be allowed to gain citizenship.
An email sent to OFA supporters in February may have been something of a preview of the group's push for immigration reform that will begin this week. In that email, Jose Magana, an undocumented immigrant, explained his work advocating for the Dream Act, which would allow young people brought to the United States as children to eventually become citizens.
"It was amazing: Just telling our stories would change people's minds," he wrote. "This is exactly how we're going to persuade people across the country to get behind President Obama's plan for comprehensive immigration reform."
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