Five Latino civil rights and voter engagement organizations released a scorecard for the members from the House of Representatives grading their actions on immigration reform.

The scorecard was developed by the Hispanic Federation, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and Voto Latino ahead of the House's summer recess in July.

"We want to give them a chance to improve their scores before the end of the session, that they're on notice now for what their score could look like if they don't pass on immigration reform," NCLR's Senior Immigration Legislative Analyst Laura Vasquez told Latin Post.

According to Vazquez, the NCLR has had a "long history" of working together with the other four Latino civil rights and voter engagement organizations on immigration issues. In 2013, a similar scorecard was developed for members of the U.S. Senate; this year's scorecard graded all 435 House members.

One criterion for the scorecard was co-sponsorship of Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (H.R. 15). Vasquez said H.R. 15 is similar to a bill the Senate passed. H.R. 15 has received 199 cosponsors but only three Republicans have signed on — California Reps. Jeff Denham and David Valadao and Florida's Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. A signature on H.R. 15's Discharge Petition was also a highlight.

Five other votes were considered for the scorecard including a record "No" vote on Rep. Steve King's Amendment to the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2217), the ENFORCE Act of 2014 (H.R. 4138), and the Faithful Execution of the Law Act of 2014 (H.R. 3973). A "Yes" vote was also required for Rep. Jerrold Nadler's Amendment to H.R. 4138 and Rep. Theodore Deutch's Amendment on H.R. 2217.

The scorecard contains preliminary figures ahead of final scores scheduled for release in July. The lowest score possible so far is 59 percent. According to Vazquez, 59 percent is the "equivalent of an F." Several House members received the lowest score, including Speaker of the House John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, House Whip Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Darrell Issa, and Rep. Peter King.

Vasquez said the scorecard can hopefully be used to create movement within the House before the August recess. If not, she noted they will look at the rubric for possible score changes, particularly the progress of the votes in the House.

"When we do the final methodology of what votes we're going to look at, I think we'll probably look at percentages again and it may be that we start from a score of zero," she added. "In our minds, it was clear that 59 percent would be the equivalent of a failing score. If we look at the final scores, we may end up looking at (giving) zero percent — you would have it very clear that you have failed on this critical issue for the Latino community."

"Our goal in issuing this scorecard to generate the movement, to get a bill passed out of the House," said Vazquez, adding the scorecard is a way constituents can talk to their representatives about their politician's commitment on the issue.

Vazquez said another goal is to not have to do another immigration scorecard, hoping a bill can get passed Congress, but said perhaps the next step would be scores on implementation or progress since a bill's passage.

Immigration reform isn't just an issue for Latinos.

"We are really excited that Asian American-Pacific Islander groups took a look at it and they said this is something their community would also benefit from and seeing how their representative has voted in favor of immigration reform," Vasquez said. "This just shows that this issue is not just for the Latino community but also Asian voters, part of the broad coalition that we work in and the support that exists in immigration."

Congressional Immigration Scorecard:

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

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