A bilingual digital advertising campaign was launched by an immigration advocacy group on Monday targeting vulnerable members of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives over the Congressional failure to come up with new legislation on immigration. The iAmerica Action six-figure digital ads will run in 27 districts in both English and Spanish.
The ads highlight the benefits of diversity to society and blame Republicans in Congress and President Donald Trump for failing to pass legislation replacing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The deferred action program was ended by Trump in September, with a six-month window to allow a law offering DACA participants permanent benefits to be created by Congress. However, despite a number of proposals, including bipartisan efforts, no legislation has been passed.
A court injunction has suspended the President’s decision to terminate the program, which means that deferred action recipients are currently still protected from the threat of deportation, but young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors who had not yet become a part of the program are still vulnerable. The ad deliberately targets those districts where incumbent Republicans often face difficult races, in addition to several supposedly safe seats.
The home district of House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is expected to easily win re-election in November, is one of those districts. However, Trump has objected to the notion that Republicans are the reason for legislative inaction regarding the DACA issue and immigration in general, saying Democrats did nothing to save the deferred action program.