In a new interview with Univision’s Jorge Ramos on Al Punto, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell called on lawmakers to get serious about passing immigration reform after years of gridlock in Congress has blocked proposals. Powell was promoting his new book, It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership, out May 22.

The son of Jamaican immigrants who moved to New York City, Powell said that Americans “will lose who we are as a nation if we shut ourselves off to immigrants.” Like many former Bush administration officials, Powell supports comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act.

“I’ve advocated this throughout my public career, immigration policies that regularize people coming to our country to seek a better life, and we should do something about those who are in our country and are undocumented, as we say, and we should find a way to bring them out of the darkness into the light, and we should treat them with respect, and we should treat those trying to get into our country with respect, and try to make it easier to get into our country on a legal basis,” Powell told Ramos.

Immigration has been one of the most divisive topics on the campaign trail in this election.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, adopted a hard-line stance on immigration and border security during the GOP primary and has faced waves of attacks from President Obama and his campaign aimed toward Latino voters, who consider the issue a sensitive concern.

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