By Maria Peña

WASHINGTON – Congressman Luis Gutierrez, tired of waiting and frustrated with the inaction of Congress and the White House, plans to formally introduce his immigration-reform bill next week, his office said Friday.

Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who had already outlined the “principles” of this reformist plan in October, will present the legislation next Tuesday, accompanied by other lawmakers and religious and civic leaders.

“We have waited patiently for a workable solution to our immigration crisis to be taken up by this Congress and our President,” he said in a statement announcing plans to introduce the bill. “The time for waiting is over.”

He said he was submitting the bill before the holiday recess “so that there is no excuse for inaction in the New Year.”

Gutierrez called the bill the fruit of “months of collaboration” with activists of immigrant-defense groups, unions and members of Congress.

It is also a response to “too many years of pain” caused by the separation of families, the exploitation of workers and the vulnerability of border security,” he said.

These problems simply reflect the disfunctional U.S. immigration system and his bill “says ‘enough,’ and presents a solution to our broken system that we as a nation of immigrants can be proud of,” the Illinois congressman said.

The U.S. Congress has been tied up for several weeks in a bitter debate on health reform that would expand medical coverage.

Analysts express concern that for now there is little interest in starting a debate on immigration reform, another matter that has caused great divisions in the United States.

In general, Republicans and conservative groups oppose a method of legalizing undocumented immigrants, arguing that, above all, what the country needs is to strengthen border security.

The Interfaith coalition, which represents religious groups that back reform, has organized a series of vigils in 13 cities around the country next week.

The vigils will end on Dec. 17, the day before International Migrants Day, with a vigil in a church near the White House.

In recent weeks, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has repeated the government’s commitment to reform the immigration system so that the 12 million undocumented aliens can “come out of the shadows” and contribute to the economy.

Before the Center for American Progress several weeks ago and before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Napolitano stressed the need for reform and defended government measures to strengthen border security.

Immigration reform, to become law, needs at least 218 votes in the House of Representatives and 60 – in the event of a filibuster – in the Senate, votes which, for now, it doesn’t appear to have.

But that isn’t stopping Gutierrez, who this year made a national tour to drum up support for immigration reform and has publicly criticized President Barack Obama for not investing sufficient political capital in the matter. EFE