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Just Hours After Polls Close, Progressive and Immigrant Rights Groups Launch Major Campaigns Demanding Action from the White House

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As the New York Times Editorial Board wrote yesterday, “Now the election is over, and the only thing to say to the president is: Do it. Take executive action. Make it big.”

And major progressive and immigrant rights groups aren’t wasting any time demanding action either.  Today, CREDO Action, which engages over 3 million members in activism, launched their push to get the President to go big on immigration, writing:

“We cannot accept any more excuses, and we won’t accept half-measures. The president can no longer put off executive action to protect millions of our families who are at grave risk of being separated because of our broken immigration system.”

Recently CREDO Action listed, “Immediately suspend deportations of millions of aspiring Americans until comprehensive immigration reform can be passed” as one of their top 3 priorities for President Obama.

Presente.org, the largest national Latino online organization in the country, launched their campaign yesterday, writing:

“The community poured their hearts and souls into turning out to vote in record numbers in 2012. We believed him when he promised to repair immigration during his second term. We’ve waited long enough for the President to fulfill his promise.”

In DC,  national leaders from all segments of the pro-immigrant rights movement held a press conference to urge President Barack Obama to seize the moment and use his authority to take administrative action to expand immediate relief from deportations for millions of workers and families that are already a part of our American communities.

The groups included AFL-CIO, SEIU, Church World Service, Nat’l Immigration Law Center, FIRM, CASA in Action, NCLR, United We Dream, PICO National Network, NDLON, Dream Action Coalition, and the Southern Border Communities Coalition.

Here are a few statements from their event:

Cristina Jimenez, Managing Director, United We Dream

“Dreamers made a promise to our community to fight and win administrative relief for our parents, neighbors, workers, and our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. I remember the day I had to tell my parents, Ligia and Fausto, the heart breaking news that President Obama had delayed his promise to protect millions of undocumented people from deportation. My father got teary-eyed and reminded me that President Obama chose politics over our lives. United We Dream members will fight tooth and nail to make sure President Obama’s promise is kept and we won’t stop until people like my father and millions of other undocumented people can live free from fear of deportation and exploitation.”

Erika Andiola, Co-Director, Dream Action Coalition

“It’s time for the President to put our families before erroneous political calculations. My mother has a month before she must report back to ICE. There are tens of thousands of families in our same situation, millions among the undocumented community who can’t afford another delay. The President must act now. Families like mine could be next to be separated.”

Salvador Sarmiento, National Director of Legislative Affairs, NDLON

“It is no longer a question of if or when the President will act but what will he do. Will the President build on, or undermine, the standard in the bipartisan senate bill? Will he listen to the hundreds of localities that have rejected the secure communities deportation dragnet? Will the president meet directly with people fighting their own cases and above all stand up for the principle of equality? Because, with the unprecedented unity that now exists, we refuse to be divided.”

Mary Kay Henry, Int’l President, SEIU

“Yesterday, as Republican Congressional leaders issued threats, President Obama reiterated his determination to do what is in his authority to do and provide relief for our country’s immigrant families and communities as soon as possible.

“We fully support his commitment; it is urgently needed. Millions of immigrants need to be brought out of the shadows and into the light of our economy and society through bold and decisive action from the President.”

Rich Trumka, Int’l President, AFL-CIO

“The AFL-CIO has been calling on the White House to halt unnecessary deportations since the Spring of 2013 because we know that we are stronger when all workers stand together. So today I am here to renew our call for the executive branch to provide work authorization, at minimum, all those who would be on a pathway to citizenship now if House Republicans had allowed a vote on the bipartisan Senate bill.”