We applaud the House of Representatives for passing an historic health care reform bill last night and caution the Senate and the White House to continue on the path to real reform and not allow anti-immigrant provisions to derail legislative progress.

Like all Americans, immigrant communities have a lot at stake in the health care bill and are pleased to see that the bill revamps the health care system in significant ways to make quality health insurance affordable for more people, improve health outcomes, and contain costs.

We are also proud to recognize the incredible courage and leadership of Representative Nydia Velazquez, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and its members, for successfully fighting to block anti-immigrant provisions that would have prevented undocumented immigrants from buying full-priced private insurance with their own money in the Exchange.

Currently, undocumented immigrants are excluded from public insurance programs like Medicaid, and that will continue under the bill passed in the House. The bill also excludes undocumented immigrants from any federal subsidies, such as affordability credits for private insurance. But in their zeal to score points by feeding into the public's frustration with illegal immigration, some members of Congress attempted to bar undocumented immigrants from using their own money to buy coverage at full price through the Exchange. This would have run counter to one of the basic tenets of health reform, which is that you can reduce costs and expand coverage by having more people pay into the system.

But because of the strong and principled leadership of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, against tremendous pressure from all sides, the House passed a stronger health care bill. Just as importantly, by rejecting the anti-immigrant provisions, the House leadership weakened the anti-immigrant zealots by demonstrating that using the immigrant issue as a wedge, on any reform efforts, will not be tolerated. This will pay off in all tough legislative battles to come.

This is a critical lesson learned that must be applied as the legislative process winds its way through the Senate, conference committee, and final signature by the president. In the next few weeks, we not only have to continue to fend off anti-immigrant exclusion attempts, but also repeal the unfair five-year waiting period in Medicaid for legal immigrants whose very taxes pay for the program.

During the coming weeks, immigrant communities will be mobilizing nationwide to help pass real health care reform. But we will do so, on the condition that legal immigrants are treated fairly and have the same access to health insurance as citizens, and that everyone will be able to buy insurance in the Exchange. Again, we thank the House leadership and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for sending a message that politics of reform and inclusion will win over the cynical wedge politics of exclusion.