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Illinois Republicans Call For Comprehensive Immigration Reform

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It wasn't the usual suspects at an immigration reform event at St. Ignatius High School on the Near West Side Monday morning, reports WBBM's Regine Schlesinger.

Normally, Democrats are prominent at immigration reform rallies but this time it was Illinois' Republican elite: Governor Rauner, Senator Kirk and three GOP members of the state's congressional delegation.

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Chicago's Roman Catholic Archbishop Blase Cupich framed it as a moral issue that transcends bi-partisanship.

"Families are being split apart by deportations," Archbishop Cupich said.

Exelon chairman emeritus John Rowe, head of the business group that brought them together, says the point was to demonstrate that in Illinois at least, Republicans and Democrats alike support comprehensive immigration reform. He's a declared Republican.

The group thanked Governor Rauner for not joining some two dozen other Republican governors who are suing President Obama over his executive order on immigration.

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