Comprehensive immigration reform benefits the economy, strengthens our bond as a nation and — most importantly— eases the suffering of millions who live on U.S. soil and aspire to be Americans.

A bipartisan immigration reform bill that would give the country’s more than 11 million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship passed the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee last years.

However, when the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 reached the House of Representatives, it stalled indefinitely. House republicans refused to even vote on it, although subcommittees had amended to make funding for border security a national priority.

After House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, one of few republican representatives who support immigration overhaul, lost his primary race in Virginia last week to a little-known college professor who opposes reform, many have pronounced the bill dead.

The bill would allow undocumented immigrants who are already working here to pay taxes. 

According to the Center for American Progress, giving undocumented workers a legal status would increase the country’s GDP by $832 billion over the next 10 years, creating $69 billion in tax revenues. 

Amnesty would enable illegal immigrants to get the proper training and education they need to use their skills to the benefit of our nation. 

It would provide much-needed highly-skilled laborers to industries like agriculture and construction. It would also eliminate the fear of millions of American children that they might wake up one day and find their parents are to be deported.

Immigration reform is good for the United states, which, since its inception, has been a country of immigrants. 

House republicans know the benefits of amnesty, yet they oppose it for political and demographic reasons.

It is a new kind of politically-motivated racism.

While most Americans are in favor of amnesty, republican voters in Congressional districts dominated by conservatives might overwhelmingly oppose immigration reform, so republican representatives are standing against it out of fear of being ousted in the primaries like Cantor.

They have become representatives of their reelection committees, not of the American people.

Immigration reform is not a matter of partisan politics. It is not a Latino issue. It is not an Arab issue or an ethnic issue. It is an American issue, a civil rights cause. It tells something about us as a nation, as a people.

What we must do in the Arab community is spread the word and try to expose the racially-charged myths about immigration. Immigrants create jobs, they don’t take them away. Amnesty will stimulate our economy, not hurt it.