A Colombia-born entrepreneur will meet US President Barack Obama on Monday to discuss a pending immigration reform.
Businessman Alexander Torrenegra will meet Obama in support of the president’s attempt to push an immigration reform through congress. Torrenegra is part of a delegation of immigrant-entrepreneurs who will meet the US president.
“We Latinos have a stigma in the United States, we are considered second-class citizens,” the entrepreneur told Colombian radio station Caracol.
Torrenegra said that one of the main purposes for the meeting with Obama was to secure better conditions for immigrants in the country.
According to newspaper El Tiempo, the Colombian-born innovator immigrated to the United States 15 years ago. Since then he has founded “dozens of companies,” generating more than $35 million a year.
Among Torrenegra’s companies are Internet services VoiceBunny and WeHostels.
According to US newspaper USA Today, Obama is close to pushing his immigration bill through the Senate, although the Republican-dominated House of Representatives is still uncertain. The meeting with immigrant business owners are meant to support Obama’s argument — that the reform would be good for the country’s economy.
More than 900,000 Colombians are estimated to live in the United States.
Sources
- Colombiano se reúne con Obama para impulsar reforma migratoria (Caracol)
- Destacado empresario colombiano se reúne con Barack Obama (El Tiempo)
- Obama’s day: Immigration and Snowden (USA Today)
