SALT LAKE CITY -- With immigration reform a hot-button issue in Utah and across the country, the Hispanic Democratic Caucus has invited Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., to be the guest at a public forum.
The forum will be at 9:30 a.m. today at the Centro Civico Mexicano, 155 S. 600 West, Salt Lake City, and is open to the public.
Organizers hope to discuss federal immigration reform and other policy matters as well as the importance of grass-roots organizing.
"We want to learn how to best address this immigration issue with Congress," said Frank Cordova, Centro Civico Mexicano president.
Immigration is an issue that affects all Latinos, Cordova said, regardless of whether they are citizens or illegal immigrants.
"The fact is, Congress has to move on this," Cordova said. "We are all being painted by the same brush, and that has an effect on all of us."
The public forum is part of Sanchez's trip to Utah on behalf of her cousin, Maria O'Brien, who is running for the office of Salt Lake County recorder.
O'Brien said both she and the congresswoman have an understanding of the immigration issues.
"We are the children of immigrants," O'Brien said. "The fact that we are from immigrant families, we are closer to it."
O'Brien said many people want to know where the nation as a whole is going with immigration. Sanchez can give her own insight and provide information about what is going on in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Besides immigration, Cordova is excited to have Sanchez share her experience in Congress with the community and hopes to hear information on how she has been elected four times to Congress.
Sanchez is running for her fifth term and serves alongside her sister, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif.
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