Since abandoning his 2012 attempt at immigration reform in order to politically cash in on the issue, Marco Rubio has adopted the harsh GOP line against deportation protections and a pathway to citizenship and Spanish-language press is taking notice. A Spanish-language paper based in his hometown, the Miami Diario, highlighted last week’s protests outside of Rubio’s offices because of the senator’s extreme anti-immigration policies.
Read more in the Spanish-language article translated by American Bridge:
“Our families will not forget who blocked DAPA, who backed that demand.”
Pro-immigrant groups protested in front of the offices of Senator Rubio during the one year anniversary of President Obama’s executive actions. The actions could benefit 253,000 families in this state.
“We are here today to remind our communities of those who are with us and those who are against us,” said María Bilbao an undocumented mother from the community.
Families of undocumented immigrants agreed to visit the Doral offices of Senator Rubio to demand answers over his position against those actions.
“We want Rubio to explain to us why our families don’t deserve the same opportunities as his family. I also clean houses like his mother and I came to this country with the same dream of looking for a better future for my family.” said Bilbao.
“We want to let Rubio know that if he is not with our community then he is against us; we have fought very hard to win DACA and DAPA and we are not going to lose because of the political interests of one candidate or a party,” said Roberto Benavides, one of the undocumented students to gain from DACA.
According to some organizations, at least 253,000 families could benefit from such measures, that aside from stopping the deportations of loved ones, allows them to work and study legally, until comprehensive immigration reform is achieved.
Groups criticized that Senator Rubio has promised to end DACA as part of his presidential campaign, although it has benefited 700,000 students in the country.
In similar fashion, various organizations like the Florida Immigration Coalition organized vigils and protests in other cities in Florida like Tampa, West Palm and Orlando in which the protesters said they would fight for DACA and DAPA with their vote in the 2016 presidential elections.
Published: Nov 23, 2015