A number of immigrant advocacy groups are organizing aggressive protests aimed at Republicans in the House of Representatives over the next couple of months. America’s Voice, the Campaign for Community Change, CASA in Action and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement are working together on a plan for “relentless and constant confrontations that will escalate” until reform legislation is passed by Congress.
The advocacy groups are hoping that targeting as many as 20 districts that are held by members of the Republican Party will end up seeing new Members of Congress that also want to see immigration reform. Kica Matos, the director of the Campaign for Community Change’s Immigrant Rights & Racial Justice campaign, admits that the groups intend to “basically throw down” while bringing the full weight of Latino and immigrant votes to bear.
Among the targets of the campaign are Congress Mike Coffman, Daniel Webster, Michael Grimm, Steve Pearce, Frank Wolf, Steve King and Chris Gibson, with the group also intending to focus their efforts on seats held by the late Bill Young and the retiring Gary Miller and Buck McKeon.
The coalition of immigration advocacy groups say that they have only recently adopted this new, more aggressive strategy in the wake of House Speaker John Boehner’s remarks indicating a lack of trust in President Obama by Congress. Matos says that this attitude has led them to changing their tactics “from persuasion to punishment” and they will do everything in their power to “punish legislators who get in the way.”