House Republicans have yet to answer an essential and timely question: “what are Speaker Boehner and House Republicans going to do on immigration, and when are they going to do it? Eliseo Medina and other leaders fasting on the National Mall deserve an answer.
Since early November, Medina and other religious, union, and civic leaders have been engaged in the “Fast for Families” – a water-only fast in a tent on the National Mall intended to highlight the moral urgency of immigration reform and to heighten the pressure on House Republicans to schedule an immigration reform vote. The fasters on the National Mall are determined to persist – at tremendous personal sacrifice – until House Republicans provide answers to these questions. With the backdrop of Thanksgiving and the fasters’ ongoing personal commitment making clear the urgency of the question, we need Republican leaders on this weekend’s Sunday Shows to start providing some important answers.
Mere days after vowing that the House of Representatives would never conference with the Senate bill on immigration, Speaker of the House John Boehner stated, “Is immigration reform dead? Absolutely not … I believe that Congress needs to deal with this issue. Our committees are continuing to do their work. There are a lot of private conversations that are underway to try to figure out, how do we best move on a common-sense, step-by-step basis to address this very important issue…because it is a very important issue.” Yet Speaker Boehner and other House Republicans have yet to introduce related legislation or schedule a vote on immigration reform.
More on the “Fast for Families” and “National Days to Act, Fast and Pray”
As the example of the fasters’ commitment spreads, leaders behind the fast announced the National Days to Act, Fast and Pray, beginning on Sunday, December 1st and continuing through Tuesday, December 3rd. Thousands of people will join the fast in solidarity in communities throughout the country. Read here for more on the Fast for Families and the National Days to Act, Fast, and Pray.
As leading faster Eliseo Medina recently told the New York Times, “Whatever little sacrifice I am making doesn’t compare with the sacrifice these immigrants made when they came to this country for a better life and find themselves living in the shadows and being exploited.”
