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Demonstrators await their arrests Wednesday after attending a demonstration asking for a vote for the Dream Act. |
TWO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS -- Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, and Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, D-Ill., —were among the 182 demonstrators arrested during a rally demandingt that Congress pass a clean Dream Act.
The arrests came after a rally and march to the Capitol where about 15,000 people called for a vote on the DREAM Act. Chu and Gutierrez were charged with “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding,” They were processed and released.
“‘Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.’ Those are the words written by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during his own, far more dire, arrest in Birmingham." said Chu after being released. She apparently was expecting to be arrested because Wednesday morning she had posted on social media that she was off to get arrested.
"And while my brush with the law today was planned and civil, those words from his famous letter continue to inspire our civil disobedience. Then it was on behalf of black citizens treated as less than human. Today it is on behalf of immigrants who are facing threats of deportation and separation from family and the only home they have ever known," said Chu, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Concus.
“Black and AAPI Immigrant are joining hands on this historic day of action to reject the lie that our people are disposable and that we are each other’s enemies," said Jung Woo Kim speaking on behalf of the Korean Resource Center and the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC).  |
| Rep. Judy Chu of California. |
"We are centering and uplifting our own voices, hold elected officials accountable and demand a clean Dream Act and a permanent solution for TPS holders together. The time is now and congress needs to act on both before the end of the year,“ said Kim.
The protestors presented a petition of 400,000 signatures in support of DREAMers and TPS holders to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-KY, Speaker Paul Ryan’, (R-WI, Senator Chuck Schumer’s, D-NY, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s, D-CA Capitol Hill offices.
Under DACA, nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children have been given work permits and protection from deportation. Trump wants to end the program by March 2018 and challenged Congress to come up with legislation to protect this group before the deadline.
"There is a bipartisan bill ready to be voted on that I know could gain a majority vote if only Speaker Ryan would let us bring it to the floor," said Chu. "We have tried everything from large scale rallies to a small meeting with the Speaker to make our case. But each time, we have been ignored. Today, I know our words were heard, but will Republicans have the courage to act on them?
Trump’s decision to end TPS will impact 420,000 immigrants from over 10 countries, the majority of which have populations that are majority Black including Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, Somalia, Yemen, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua.
Activists said they hoped their rally would help destroy the stereotype that the black and Asian-Americans communities are at odds.
The protestors presented a petition of 400,000 signatures in support of DREAMers and TPS holders to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-KY, Speaker Paul Ryan’, (R-WI, Senator Chuck Schumer’s, D-NY, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s, D-CA Capitol Hill offices.
Under DACA, nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children have been given work permits and protection from deportation. Trump wants to end the program by March 2018 and challenged Congress to come up with legislation to protect this group before the deadline.
"There is a bipartisan bill ready to be voted on that I know could gain a majority vote if only Speaker Ryan would let us bring it to the floor," said Chu. "We have tried everything from large scale rallies to a small meeting with the Speaker to make our case. But each time, we have been ignored. Today, I know our words were heard, but will Republicans have the courage to act on them?
Activists said they hoped their rally would help destroy the stereotype that the black and Asian-Americans communities are at odds.
The protest was sponsored by the AAPI Immigrant Rights Organizing Table and UndocuBlack. The day of action by the two groups highlighted the exclusion of both Blacks and Asian/Americans from the immigration debate. It might signal more joint actions by the two ethnic groups that conservatives try to divide by using the Asian stereotype of the model minority myth against African/Americans.
“Black and Asian/Americans and Pacific Islanders] immigrants are joining hands on this historic day of action to reject the lie that our people are disposable and that we are each other’s enemies,” said Jonathan Jayes-Green, co-creator and national coordinator for the UndocuBlack Network.
"Through coalitions, we are stronger. By joining together, we increase our power tremendously,” Chu said.
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