Immigrants march on GOP House Speaker demanding vote on immigration reform
On the 9th of April, hundreds of immigrants and their supporters marched up Capitol Hill to the office of Speaker of the House Jim Boehner. He is refusing to permit the House to vote on an immigration reform bill that has already passed the Senate.
Video of the march on Speaker Jim Boehner's office
The march began with the closing rally for a 48 hour fast by over 100 women demanding that the Speaker of the House permit a vote on this bill and that deportations that are separating children from their families be immediately halted. From there most of the group marched to the Cannon House Office Building, then entered the "security" bag search line to enter and proceed to Speaker Boehner's office. I do not know what happened inside as I do not consent to searches.
There were a lot of US flags in the march, this being no doubt a political calculation dating back to the 2006 far-right fury over West Coast immigrant marches against the fascist "Sensenbrenner" anti-immigration bill. Many marchers in those carried the flags of the lands of their birth, to the fury of the far right and the GOP. When asked if I would carry a US flag, I said I would not fly the flag that flew over Wounded Knee, and was told that was an entirely understandable answer. Those bottomlining the fight against deportation and poverty wages will make the choices they deem necessary given their circumstances.