Pressure on President Obama to address his record rate of deportations is intensifying, from all corners of the pro-immigration reform world.
According to Greg Sargent at the Washington Post, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is releasing a memo that calls upon the President to stop deporting those who would qualify for the Senate immigration bill. The memo was developed weeks ago, but withheld after Obama called a private meeting with CHC members and urged them to hold off while DHS conducted a review of deportation policies. Now it seems that the memo will be released anyway, and presented to DHS officials on April 9th.
Why? “Latino lawmakers are tired of waiting,” says the Post article, “and the release of the new memo will intensify pressure for action.”
And action for pressure is certainly intensifying. Tomorrow, the #Not1More campaign from NDLON will hold dozens of events across the country protesting deportations. The DRM Action Coalition yesterday announced that they are setting up in Lafayette Park, just north of the White House, and do not plan to leave until Obama takes executive action. An ICE office in San Bernardino was picketed yesterday, one action in a chain of many where advocates have protested, rallied, and conducted acts of civil disobedience outside of ICE and detention centers where their loved ones are being held. A group of San Francisco women with We Belong Together have begun a month-long hunger strike for immigration reform and relief from deportations.
Is it working? It could be a few months before we find out. As advocates across the country have made clear to both President Obama and Congress, however, they aren’t going away.
Read the memo from the CHC below:
