At the America's Future Now! conference in Washington, DC on Tuesday, SEIU International Executive VP Eliseo Medina addressed attendees on why comprehensive immigration reform is an important issue to support. Watch the video of his speech here:

Medina has been a dedicated and active participant in the coalition of advocates for comprehensive immigration reform, appearing at several kickoff events this week gearing up for the summer-long push to get moving on legislation this year.

At yesterday's press conference sponsored by Reform Immigration FOR America--a new campaign bringing together labor, faith, civil rights, pro-immigrant, business and law enforcement communities to help President Obama make good on his promise to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2009--Medina emphasized the economic advantages to bringing the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants currently residing in the U.S. "out of the shadows." Not creating a fair process allowing for legalization, said Medina, will just allow employers to continue taking advantage of undocumented workers, which "serves only to undermine wages for all workers."

More on how immigration reform would benefit our current economy.