SAN ANTONIO – To mark the first anniversary of President Obama’s now stalled executive actions, immigrant advocates plan to stage protests throughout the U.S. this month.
The Texas Organizing Project and other groups in support of immigrant workers and families announced their participation in a local National Day of Action, beginning with a march at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 20 at Milam Park downtown.
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Jessica Azua, a TOP organizer, said the next day, Nov. 21, groups from throughout Texas will gather at noon for a rally in front of the State Capitol.
Azua said they will protest the lawsuit filed by Gov. Greg Abbott among others, likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, that have left the hopes of many immigrants in limbo.
She said the president’s executive actions would have temporarily deferred deportations for as many as 5 million people nationwide, 700,000 in Texas alone.
Azua said those eligible would have been young people brought to the U.S. as children as well as immigrant parents of U.S. citizens of legal residents.
TOP and other groups call the lawsuit morally wrong. They pointed to continued deportations that are splitting up parents and children.
However, Robert Stovall, chairman of the Bexar County Republican Party, said the issue has become a political football for Democrats leading up to next year’s presidential election.
“If they want to paint the Republican Party as being anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic, then they’re going to keep trying to sell that, but it’s not selling very well,” Stovall said.