Immigrant activists and allies call on Congress to stop the attacks and come up with a real solution for our broken immigration system
Today, hundreds of immigrants and their families are holding sit-ins inside dozens of Capitol Hill offices, protesting the fact that Republicans have done nothing on immigration since taking over both the House and the Senate other than holding multiple votes attempting to kill DACA.
So far, as least three offices — those belonging to Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Cory Gardner (R-CO) — have called Capitol Hill police to arrest the advocates assigned to them, even though advocates have taken similar actions before without trouble.
The Congressional offices being targeted today are those of Republican 2016 hopefuls, GOP leadership, and outspoken anti-immigrant leaders. Each member being targeted has voted in favor of deporting DREAMers and immigrant parents, and in favor of holding up national security funding in order to push this goal. In contrast, today’s advocates called for the passing of a clean DHS funding bill, and for Congress to take up real immigration reform.
As CASA de Maryland President Gustavo Torres said in a press release:
Republicans have engaged in ceaseless attacks on hardworking immigrant families. When our children vote in 2016 they will not forget the party that sought to destroy their parents.
Activists came from a dozen states for today’s action. Among them were constituents from Sen. Mark Kirk’s state in Illinois, including Ruth Lopez from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. As she said:
Sen. Kirk should be careful of voting with the extreme anti-immigrant wing in his party. The 2012 Deferred Action program for Dreamers has helped 35,000 immigrant youth in Illinois, and the new programs for immigrant workers and parents will help tens of thousands more in our state, yet Sen. Kirk keeps voting against our families. Does he know how vital immigrant workers are to our economy in Illinois? He better learn if he wants to get re-elected next year.
Offices being visited today:
- Sen. Mark Kirk
- Sen. Rand Paul
- Rep. Lou Barletta
- Rep. Kevin McCarthy
- Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers
- Rep. Barbara Comstock
- Rep. David Brat
- Rep. Martha Roby
- Rep. Ted Yoho
- Speaker John Boehner
- Rep. Scott Perry
- Rep. Raul Labrador
- Rep. Andy Harris
- Rep. Greg Walden
- Rep. Steve King
- Rep. Louie Gohmert
- Rep. Bob Goodlatte
- Rep. Steve Scalise
- Rep. Lamar Smith
- Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner
- Sen. Marco Rubio
- Rep. Rob Wittman
- Sen. Kelly Ayotte
- Sen. Mitch McConnell
- Sen. Jeff Sessions
- Sen. Rob Portman
- Sen. Chuck Grassley
- Sen. Mike Lee
- Sen. Ron Johnson
- Sen. John Cornyn
- Rep. Michael McCaul
- Rep. Trey Gowdy
- Rep. John Carter
- Sen. John Hoeven
- Sen. John Thune
- Sen. Roger Wicker
- Sen. Ted Cruz
View the tweets from today below. Also view the Flickr page from today’s event.
