FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
March 6, 2014 Julian Teixeira
(202) 776-1812
jteixeira@nclr.org
WASHINGTON, D.C.—More than 200 hundred leaders from Latino nonprofit and civic organizations in cities across the U.S. were on Capitol Hill today to send a strong message to House Republican leadership that failing to act on immigration reform will have political consequences. Representatives from each state participated today in “NCLR in Action: Vote for Immigration Reform,” lining up outside the office of Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R–Va.) to cast a ballot for immigration reform. That ballot box was then delivered to Leader Cantor.
“House Republican leadership has hidden behind excuse after excuse for why they cannot move forward with immigration reform,” said Clarissa Martínez-De-Castro, Director of Immigration and Civic Engagement at NCLR (National Council of La Raza). “Political choices have consequences, and how they handle immigration reform in the next ten months will impact the political landscape over the next decade. Latinos won’t sit idly by while thousands more family members and friends get deported every day. Our community will continue to pressure House Republicans to act and the White House to intervene in unnecessary deportations. We will raise our voice at the voting booth, where we will remember who championed immigration reform and who stood in the way of progress.”
More than 11 million Latinos cast a ballot in the 2012 elections. The Hispanic vote grew by 15% between 2008 and 2012—compared to 10% for Black voters and –2% for White voters—and that growth will continue as an average of 880,000 young Latino citizens turn 18 each year and become eligible to register.
Today’s event bookended a week focused heavily on immigration reform. The event on Capitol Hill was part of the 2014 NCLR National Latino Advocacy Days, which brought hundreds of Latino leaders from more than 30 states to the nation’s capital for trainings on policy and legislative advocacy.
NCLR—the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—works to improve opportunities for Latinos. For more information on NCLR, please visit www.nclr.org, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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