Labor, Immigration Activists Launch Campaign to Force House Vote

One of the most prominent groups in support of comprehensive immigration reform will join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and wage an “all-in, throw-down” campaign against 11 House Republicans to try to force a vote on the bill before the end of this month.

According to the New York Times, the Fair Immigration Reform Movement and the SEIU plan to spend “$1 million on radio ads, telephone banks and social media drives in the districts” this month. 

They will focus on the House leadership, which includes Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, Representatives Eric Cantor of Virginia, Kevin McCarthy of California and Peter Roskam of Illinois. The groups will also target Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Greg Walden (R-OR) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Buck McKeon (R-CA), Mike Coffman (R-CO),  Daniel Webster (R-FL) and Michael Grimm (R-NY).

Leaders of the coalition told the Times that “focusing on those districts would be part of a nationwide campaign to push House lawmakers to hold a vote before the end of this month on a broad immigration bill that would include a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.”

Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, told the Times that many organizations in the group were spurred to action when the House voted to “halt a program giving reprieves from deportation to young undocumented immigrants, which has been very popular in those communities.”