The Obama administration will allow a massive rally for comprehensive immigration reform on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. on the National Mall, even though it is supposed to be closed due to the federal government shutdown.
Open-air spaces like the World War II Memorial have been barricaded since the federal government shut down last week, but an organizer for the rally told the Washington Examiner that the National Park Service will allow the rally and march.
As Breitbart News reported, immigration activists have called for volunteers to get themselves arrested at the rally in acts of civil disobedience.
The event will be a culmination of rallies across the country over the weekend in which immigration activists demonstrated in 41 states demanding amnesty.
A variety of immigration activist organizations, along with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO, are organizing the event, which they claim will attract 10,000 people.
Lawmakers in Congress like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (R-CA) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) are expected to be at the event. Members of the House are trying to pass immigration reform bills that will allow them to go to conference with the Senate, which passed its comprehensive immigration bill in June that provided a pathway to citizenship for all of the country’s illegal immigrants.
The Congressional Budget Office determined that bill would reduce the wages of working class Americans while not solving the country’s illegal immigration problem.
House Republicans have been reportedly working under the radar on immigration reform, and Pelosi has said Democrats are willing to do “whatever it takes” to get to conference with the Senate. House Republican leaders have also expressed support in moving immigration reform legislation forward. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who is the chairwoman of the House Republican conference, told Univision’s Al Punto on Sunday that “there’s still time” for immigration reform and that it is a “priority” for Republicans.
“We must pass immigration reform,” McMorris Rodgers said.
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) indicated that immigration reform will be next on the House’s agenda after the shutdown and the debt ceiling debates are resolved.