Across the country this August, advocates for a pathway to citizenship organized more than one thousand events for immigration reform and citizenship.
Advocates kicked off the August recess with a massive display of civil disobedience in Washington, DC, where more than 40 immigration leaders were arrested for demonstrating against House inaction on immigration reform:
Opponents of immigration reform struggled to keep up.
Pro-reform advocates across the country moved 25 key Republicans in the House to make public statements in support of the pathway to citizenship.
While Steve King and opponents of reform spoke to empty venues.
Leaders in the Democratic party said they have 200 votes for immigration reform.
While support for self-deportation crumbled.
Advocates across the country took over town halls and made their support known.
Below, Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA), a key Republican in the House, says he supports a pathway to citizenship:
And advocates moved Rep. Aaron Schock, a Republican from Illinois:
“I think undocumented citizens should have to come forward, they should have to self identify, pay a penalty and back taxes, and then I think they should go on a probationary period, and then the border need to be secure, the senate bill has a provision in there that somebody makes the determination that the border is secure before those who have legal status can then be in the line for citizenship. That should make application for citizenship.”
As well as Republican Rep. John Carter from Texas:
“After a 10 year period of time, if a person does want to go for citizenship, they cannot get a work permit, and they can get in line to get a green card.”
And Mark Amodei from Nevada (0:33 – 0:58):
“I don’t care what your political bent is, to do nothing and leave us the way we are now with a 26 year old system that is broken on most fronts whether it’s boarder security, whether it’s dealing with folks that are already here, whether it’s the visa system, is just something that works for absolutely nobody. The hardest thing for me to defend will be is if we get to the end of this year and we’ve done nothing and left you with the status quo that would be awful regardless of what your party is or what your politics.”
Republican Rep. Tom Latham from Iowa (6:11-6:20):
“It’s physically impossible to deport 11 million people. Whether you want to or not.”
And Republican Rep. James Lankford from Oklahoma (0:38-0:50):
“We do need to fix the system from here, there are lots of obvious issues , I’ve got every opinion you can imagine, there are folks in the house and senate that say we should do nothing- I don’t agree.”
In Utah, advocates won support from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (1:11):
“There should be a pathway to citizenship, not a special pathway, and not no pathway, but there has to be a legal lawful way to go through this process, that works [and right now it doesn’t].”
And don’t forget Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus from Alabama!
“Y’all may think I’m copping out, but with my Christian faith, it’s hard for me to say that I’m gonna divide these families up. […] Bring ‘em into our system. Give them legal status. They will pay Social Security. They’ll work hard.”
We’re still working on Speaker John Boehner from Ohio.
Led by CREDO Action, Reform Immigration for America, and MoveOn.org, advocates delivered over 600,000 petitions to Speaker Boehner this week!
If you think August was intense. Just wait until October.
We now have more than 218 votes to pass immigration reform with a path to citizenship in the House of Representatives. Speaker John Boehner just needs to give us a vote.
