Migrants stop working and ask for “Citizenship, now!” in United States

Hundreds of migrants demonstrated Monday in front of the White House in Washington and other cities in U.S and thousands did not work in response to a call on Tik Tok to ask President Joe Biden for immigration reform.

to the cry of “We are not one, we are not a hundred, we are millions, tell us well!” or “What do we want? citizenship nownow now”, Hundreds of migrants braved the freezing cold to tell Biden that “they feel disappointed Y they want him to keep his election campaign promises”, Carlos Eduardo Espina, the influencer who called the protest on the social network, told AFP in Washington.

“President, wake up, these people who have brought (the country) forward during covid, who have cultivated the land and brought food to the tables, the women who have cared for children, the elderly, those who have worked in cleaning, in shops, in construction, domestic workers” they want to be recognized, declared Lenka Mendoza, of Peruvian origin, at the microphone.

The forgotten

“They are heroes who have worked during the pandemic Y We cannot allow them to continue to be forgotten”added this woman, who knows very well what it means to fight for ideals.

In the same place, in front of the White House, eight years ago he went on an 18-day hunger strike so that former President Barack Obama would sign a program to help undocumented parents with American children, which his successor Donald Trump has buried.

Nowadays they ask President Biden a path to citizenship.

Biden promoted immigration reform and proposed a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants in a country that has not had a law of this type for 35 years, but his main initiatives have stalled, without sufficient support in the Senate, where he runs into a frontal opposition of the republicans and of some centrist.

The initiative “A day without migrants”, which has the support of congressmen such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of Puerto Rican origin, and Ilhan Omar, a former Somali and Muslim refugee, has mobilized thousands of people since Espina, with more than two million and a half of followers on Tik Tok, called her less than 15 days ago.

On its Facebook page, it has the support of almost 95,000 members and “more than 5,000 people decided not to go to work or close their businesses” on February 14 to make their voices heard, Diana Fula, a coordinator at the national.

“Valentine’s Day is one of the days where more is spent on state United. But if it weren’t for the immigrants, this very commercial day would not be possible.” it reads on the page.

Leopoldo López, 43, from Puebla, Mexico, was one of those who decided to close his moving company in New York.

“That’s how they pay us”

“We are not stealing here, we are providing employment. I employ 12 citizens and I travel all over the country where I need labor and give work,” he told AFP, “tired of being fooled by the Democrats.”

“We have worked knocking on doors to move the vote and that is how they pay us with these injustices,” Anselmo Salazar complained to the protesters who chanted slogans in approval. “I want to tell you Joe Biden: if you don’t keep your promise you will be left dreaming for re-election.”

In 2020, Latinos were the largest minority with participation in the polls and according to some estimates they voted around 70% for the Democrats and almost 30% for the Republicans, although the percentages varied greatly according to the states.

The organizers of this Monday’s protest ask all migrants in the United States to call and write to the congressmen of their state to ask them to mobilize for “immigration reform for all, which allows them to work legally and travel freely (…) without risk of deportation.

“Here we don’t have political sides,” says Espina. “We no longer support promises, but facts.”