For immediate release
September 30, 2021
Press Contacts:
Luis Angel Reyes Savalza | (415) 635-4931 | luisangel@pangealegal.org
Pete Woiwode 734.709.1789 pete.woiwode@gmail.com
UPDATE: 5 Organizers Arrested as Immigrant Families and Allies Occupy San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, Demand that Democrats Override Senate Parliamentarian, And Enact Full Economic Justice, Climate Justice, and Citizenship for All, No Exclusions
Watch the Facebook Livestream here: https://www.facebook.com/bayresistance
Photos and Videos uploaded here : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11fQwL-KzJ4plCeUGbHnRUvCotmYhyWZd?usp=sharing
Hashtags to follow:
#WeAreHome
#CitizenshipForAll
#PapelesParaTodos
San Francisco, CA – 5 organizers, including at least 1 undocumented person, were arrested this morning after the Golden Gate Bridge was blockaded by immigrant families and allies demanding Senate Democrats take immediate action to protect all immigrants.
Thirty-five cars slowed to a stop halting traffic northbound on the iconic bridge. Organizers from the Bay Area Coalition for Economic Justice and Citizenship for All exited their cars and gave speeches, carrying banners, and chanted in English and Spanish, and held the bridge for 45 minutes to ensure that their message is heard by Congressional Democrats.
California Highway Patrol, despite consistent requests from organizers to release traffic, held up commuters on for an additional 20 minutes. CHP then detained and arrested 5 of the organizers, who are currently being held.
This action takes place as a looming Senate vote on the Budget Reconciliation Bill is being watered down from its $3.5 trillion goal, and which excludes a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. Just yesterday the unelected Senate parliamentarian again recommended against a pathway to citizenship in the Budget Reconciliation Bill. The Movement for Citizenship for All (Papeles Para Todos) and the Bay Area Coalition for Economic Justice and Citizenship for All releases the following statement:
In the last 20 years the wealthiest Americans have received over $5 trillion in tax breaks while Black, Indigenous, immigrants, and working-class communities have been left to languish.
Each year, federal, state, and local governments receive approximately $120.7 billion in taxes from undocumented immigrants (including $79.7 billion in annual federal taxes). Each year, undocumented workers buoy the country’s social safety net, paying $17 billion to Social Security and $4 billion to Medicare. Yet these government programs unjustly exclude undocumented immigrants from receiving benefits they’ve paid into, as was grotesquely demonstrated when undocumented families were omitted from federal stimulus relief in 2020 and 2021, despite immigrant families, in particular Black and Latinx immigrants, being disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
Both Republican and Democratic administrations have not only benefited from the exploitation of undocumented workers, they have vastly extended policies that dehumanized, criminalized, and deported immigrants (disproportionately Black immigrants), as the appalling repression of Haitian refugees at the border demonstrates.
This injustice must stop. Immigrant communities cannot wait another 20 years of failed promises. An inclusive pathway to citizenship would boost the U.S. economy. As the Center for American Progress reports, a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants would increase U.S. gross domestic product by a cumulative total of $1.7 trillion over 10 years, create 438,800 new jobs, and increase wages for undocumented and American workers. The time to deliver economic justice, climate justice, and citizenship for all is now.
For these reasons, we demand that Vice President Harris and top Democrats in Congress override the decision by the unelected Senate parliamentarian which excludes undocumented immigrants from the budget reconciliation process. The Senate parliamentarian’s decision is unbinding. The parliamentarian is not democratically elected and can be overridden by the Democrats who control the Senate. Indeed, there’s precedent for this. In 2001, the Republican Party did not hesitate to fire the Senate parliamentarian in order to enact President Bush’s infamous tax-breaks for the super-rich. We demand that the Democrats provide a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country, and to do so without criminalizing Black and Indigenous immigrants.
We further demand that the Democrats not exclude economic justice and climate justice from the budget reconciliation bill. We demand that they enact the full $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, which is already a compromised bill, without further exclusions.
We demand:
Citizenship for all, no exclusions, no criminalization
Free community college tuition nationwide and an increase in Pell grants
Free pre-kindergarten for 3 and 4-year-old children nationwide
Paid federal family leave
Extension of the child tax credit
Financial support for parents of children and childcare workers
The expansion of MediCare to include dental, vision and hearing benefits
Lowering prescription drug prices and extending Obamacare to low-income Americans
Forming a Climate Conservation Corps to expand drought and forestry programs
Attacking the climate crisis with new polluter fees on corporations, clean energy, and consumer rebates
Penalties on employers and corporations for illegal union-busting
Those who occupied the SF Golden Gate Bridge, together with the Bay Area Coalition for Economic Justice and Citizenship for All, will hold a follow-up press conference:
What: Press Conference & Rally
When: Thursday, September 30, 2021
Time: Noon
Location: Federal Building, 280 S. First Street, San Jose
Who: Immigrant families and theBay Area Coalition for Economic Justice and Citizenship for All