The President and Senate Republicans Must Step Up and Lead

Today at more than 80 events in 30 states across the country, more than half a million people prayed, rallied, marched, and protested to demand an immediate fix to our broken immigration system from the President and the United States Congress. The events represent a promised escalation of unrelenting pressure by the grassroots to fix the broken immigration system that divides families, tears apart communities, and burdens our economy.

In Los Angeles, 250,000 marched for immigration reform. In Chicago, 110,000 demanded federal action on the broken immigration system. In Milwaukee, 70,000; In Atlanta, 8,000; In Miami, another 4,000. In St Louis, MO supporters joined Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú  and others for a peaceful march and vigil in support of immigrant rights. Thousands joined marches in Dallas and New York. In cities big and small people marched to demand action from our government to address and fix this crisis once and for all. Any doubt about the size, scope, and magnitude of the immigration reform movement was erased today. All over the country, the grassroots was united in its call for urgency.

Marchers sent a message to the President and Senate Republicans. The time for empty promises, doubletalk, and Washington DC political games has run out. The passage of the harshest and most extreme anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona, and the consideration of it in at least seven other states, has triggered a national crisis that President Obama and the Republican Party can no longer ignore. Combined with the administration’s enforcement-only approach to immigration that continues the worst excesses of the Bush administration, there is a moral, political, and civil rights disaster in America. On May 1^st, the grassroots spoke loudly and clearly: Enough is enough!

In Washington D.C., national leaders of the immigration reform movement, including Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Ali Noorani, Chair of Reform Immigration FOR America, Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, Gustavo Torres, Executive Director of CASA de Maryland, and others were arrested at the White House today in protest of the administration’s shameful inaction and in solidarity with the immigrant community.

Last week Senate Democrats unveiled their framework for comprehensive immigration reform with an open request to Republicans to sit down at the negotiating table. So far, Republican Senators have refused to accept the invitation and continue to talk out of both sides of their mouth.  They say the federal government must fix the broken immigration system, and then say they won’t do it. Republicans need to tell the American people where they stand. Do they stand with the extremist fringe within their party, or do they stand with the vast majority of the American people that want a serious fix to this problem? The time to choose is now.

The President must step up and do better than what to date has been inconsistent leadership on immigration reform. If the President was serious when he said his commitment to achieving reform was “unwavering” he should immediately convene a White House summit to address the crisis and bring leaders from both parties to the negotiating table. We can no longer afford to wait. Administration policies are tearing families apart and federal inaction has left the states to fill the void with bad policies.

The status quo is no longer tolerable. Reform Immigration FOR America will not rest until the President and the Congress keep their promise to reform the broken immigration system. Every day that federal government fails to act, we will ratchet up the political cost for continuing an unjust and broken system.  Those on the sidelines will be asked to choose between practical reform and those who support the immoral policies of the status quo.