Demonstrators blocked traffic on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge Thursday calling on Senate Democrats to pass a provision granting a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Organized by the Movement for Citizenship for All (Papeles Para Todos) and the Bay Area Coalition for Economic Justice and Citizenship for All, dozens of undocumented mothers, students and allies exited their cars with banners and Spanish chants with demands for immigration reform at around 7 a.m., the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The demonstrations responded to the Senate parliamentarian’s Wednesday rejection of the Democrats’ provision into the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package intended to grant amnesty to nearly 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., CNN reported.
The demonstrators blocked incoming traffic on the bridge until around 8 a.m., risking the chance of arrest or deportation, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Law enforcement, who arrived around at 7:15 a.m., issued a handful of citations to protesters but reportedly made no arrests.
Demonstrators said they are standing up for the rights of immigrants after enduring discrimination and inhumane treatment for two decades, the outlet reported. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Democrats’ Slideshow Highlights Amnesty Proposal For Illegal Immigrants That Would Cost $105 Billion In Reconciliation Bill)
“We are escalating our actions and our undocumented families are risking arrest and possibly deportation to sent the message we can no longer wait,” said DACA recipient Luis Angel Reyes Savalza, according to the Chronicle.
Protesters halt traffic at the Golden Gate Bridge, calling on Democrats to support undocumented immigrants pic.twitter.com/b2s9shnjZp
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 30, 2021
“The immigrant community has endured a politics of fear from both Democrats and Republicans over the last 20 years, from horrific family separations, to for profit detention which has skyrocketed beyond recognition, inhumane treatment inside detention centers and caging children at the border,” Reyes Savalza continued.
President Joe Biden has resisted calls to work with Senate Democrats to overturn the parliamentarian’s Wednesday ruling and pass with a 60-vote threshold requirement, the outlet reported.
Immigration policy proposals have failed to pass Congress in the past 20 years, including a push back on the 2013 bipartisan “Gang of Eight” compromise that intended to legalize millions of immigrants and increase border security, the outlet reported. Former President Barack Obama passed the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) through executive order to provide legal status to children brought to the country illegally.
This week, the Biden administration, along with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, appealed a July ruling by Texas U.S. District Court Judge Andrew S. Hanen blocking the new DACA applications for Dreamers on grounds of it allegedly violating the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
Senate Democrats were expected for a possible vote on the reconciliation package earlier Thursday, which included several other provisions in the package to expand Medicare, fund billions in child care, climate change, paid leave and two years of tuition-free community college.