Immigration reform advocate to retire from House
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a longtime advocate for comprehensive immigration reform and strident critic of the Trump administration, is set to announce he is retiring from Congress on Tuesday, according to multiple Democrats familiar with the decision.
Calls to the congressman were not answered Monday night. His top spokesman, Doug Rivlin, declined to comment.
Gutierrez held an event in Chicago on Monday alongside Mayor Rahm Emanuel and is slated to hold a news conference in Chicago on Tuesday morning.
The 63-year-old congressman has served his Chicago district since 1993 and is a senior member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
A Puerto Rican, he has been a lead proponent in recent weeks of providing federal aid to stormravaged Puerto Rico.
He also has been arrested this year outside Trump Tower in New York protesting the president’s strict immigration enforcement policy.
But Gutierrez also was among the harshest critics of former President Barack Obama, whom he called the “deporter in chief ” for ordering immigration agencies to deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants.
He strongly disagreed with Obama’s — and his then-chief of staff Emanuel’s decision — to use the early years of his presidency to push for health-care reform instead of an immigration overhaul.
Before the Thanksgiving recess, Gutierrez told The Washington Post that he was planning to file the roughly 800 signatures he needed to collect in order to run for re-election.
“I’m filing my papers, and I’m doing it again,” he said at the time.
But he has privately hinted to colleagues for the past several years that he wanted to retire. Earlier this year, he signaled that he felt comfortable doing so now that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has more than 30 members, including several younger, more ambitious colleagues in safe districts who are likely to be in Congress for several years to come.
Gutierrez’s decision gives potential replacements just one week to collect signatures and get on the ballot. Two potential candidates include Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Chicago Alderman Carlos Ramirez Rosa.
Widely known across Chicago, Gutierrez is arguably the most high-profile and best-known member of Congress to Spanishspeaking Latinos who watch Univision and Telemundo national newscasts. Much like Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., or Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., frequent news programs in English, Gutierrez is an eagerly sought guest to weigh in on all issues of the day in Spanish.
In a 2013 Washington Post profile of the congressman, Jorge Ramos, who anchors Univision’s nightly newscast, Noticiero Univision, explained that “There are only a few names that are familiar to most Hispanic families, and Luis Gutierrez is one of them.”
Ramos said Gutierrez can draw a crowd “not just because he’s always on, but because he’s on the right side of history, or he’s on the side of Latinos and undocumented immigrants.”
Gutierrez is not the only senior Latino lawmaker stepping down after next year. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the most senior Hispanic female Republican in Congress, is also set to retire after next year.
Widely known across Chicago, Rep. Luis Gutierrez is arguably the most highprofile and best-known member of Congress to Spanish-speaking Latinos who watch Univision and Telemundo national newscasts.