Congress Hits the Brakes on Immigration Reform

(BW) - This week, advocates of comprehensive immigration reform will stage events in Washington, where they’ll try to make news by getting arrested. Next week, they’ll make noise outside the D.C. offices of corporations that give big money to Republicans and are believed to have sway over them on the issue. On Oct. 5, activists will hold rallies in more than 60 other cities.

Will any of this get Congress’s attention?

Earlier this year, the prospects for immigration reform looked somewhat promising after the Senate approved a bill with bipartisan backing just six months into the start of the new Congress. Advocates saw lawmakers’ five-week August recess as an opportunity to target Republicans in the House while they were at home in their districts and launch pressure campaigns for a vote this fall.

The Alliance for Citizenship, a coalition of scores of groups from across the political spectrum, says its members took part in 1,200 events nationwide. They packed the audiences at town halls and staged press conferences outside the offices of lawmakers who weren’t holding public forums. The Evangelical Immigration Table, a group of conservative religious leaders, plowed $400,000 into ads on Christian radio stations.

As a result of the agitating, activists say two dozen Republicans have expressed public support for immigration reform. “I can say very confidently that we won the recess,” says Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.