Twelve-year-old Josh Garcia courageously took the stage. Fighting back tears, he told how he came home from school one day to find that his father had been taken into an immigration detention facility.

His father, an entrepreneur who had created dozens of jobs, was "exactly the kind of person we want in this country." And there wasn't a dry eye in the place as this young American boy told the audience how the next time he saw his father, he was traumatized to find him "in a prison" surrounded by men with guns.

On June 13, I sponsored an immigration town hall in my home state of Colorado to discuss the harm our broken immigration system is causing American families and the urgent need for comprehensive immigration reform.

More than 1,600 attendees, including representatives from Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faiths, filled the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish Center in Northglenn and spilled outside onto the lawn in the hot June sun.

Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput -- despite our many differences -- joined me onstage to urge people of faith to stand up for immigration reform. The audience listened with rapt attention as Josh and several other Americans directly impacted by our broken immigration laws recounted their haunting tales.

Our current immigration system is broken and greatly in need of reform. In order to create real, long-lasting reform, we must create a pathway to legal status for the millions of undocumented immigrants who have made lives for themselves and their families in the United States. It is essential for our national security to know who resides within our borders.