for immediate release // excuse cross-posting
Contact: B. Loewe, NDLON, 773.791.4668, bloewe@ndlon.org
NDLON Calls for Boycott of Upcoming House Hearings, Demands Immediate Executive Action
In Response to Rep. Gutierrez Speech, NDLON Presses for Action
This morning, Congressman Luis Gutierrez said that “nothing is moving” in the House and called upon the President to stop deportations. In response to this significant floor speech, Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, issued the following statement:
“The President’s immigration policy must evolve substantially and without delay in the face of repugnant Congressional inaction. After over a decade of empty rhetoric from Congress members of all sides about how immigration laws are ‘broken,’ Congressman Gutierrez’s speech today reflects a new consensus: It is Congress that is broken, and the President must now maximize use of his existing legal authority to protect immigrants and the national interest.
People across the political spectrum are sick and tired of partisan games in Washington DC, where everything seems to have become one big ‘state of play.’ If high paid lobbyists want to make money spinning false hope about prospects in this do-nothing Congress, they are certainly free to do that. But we will no longer pay attention to a Congress that is more interested in demagoguery than the suffering of children. At this point, energy will be properly directed at the President to do the right thing.
Whereas House Republican bad faith has been well-established for years, we are now arriving at a moment of truth that will measure President Obama’s legacy. Will the President fulfill expectations and take action to stop very clear injustice, or will he be content to use the crisis as fodder for an issue in the next electoral campaign?”
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