Pro-Immigration Protesters Rally at Congressman Farenthold’s Office

This article was originally published on kiii-tv South Texas.

A group of protesters pushing for immigration reform gathered Thursday at Congressman Blake Farenthold’s office on North Shoreline Boulevard. The protesters blame House Republicans for the lack of immigration reform and say enough is enough with the empty promises.

It was a year ago that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to resume the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children. Those are the so-called “dreamers,” as immigration reform supporters call them, and it is because of the anniversary of that vote that the protesters gathered outside of Farenthold’s office on Thursday.

Nueces County Democratic Party Chair Joseph Ramirez lead the protest, with a group of about 20 people gathered outside Farenthold’s office holding signs and chanting for immigration reform. The group eventually made its way into the congressman’s office to make their voices heard.

Most of the protesters drove in from the Valley, but there were some local protesters there as well.

“I’m not used to being here, you know, voicing what I feel inside, but somebody needs to say something,” said Juanita Lopez of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

“Everybody needs to say something. Everybody needs to say this is foolishness,” protester Carolyn Moon said. “Like, I’ve been paying taxes to send people down toward the border to stop folks from coming north so they can die in the desert and hurt Brooks County.”

“Immigrants have done so much to contribute to our economy, to contribute to our culture,” protester Isabel Araiza said. “The people who come here have a desire to do better, and I think that we owe it to them, and it’s our responsibility to take the fear out of their existence.”

The following is a statement from Representative Farenthold on the immigration debate following Thursday’s protest:

“I recognize the current immigration debate is one that Texans feel very passionately about on both sides. All sides of the immigration debate need to tone down the rhetoric and come together with long-term solutions that we can all get behind. I support an approach to fixing our broken immigration system that works to address specific problems piece-by-piece, with border security being the top priority. The administration’s current policies, as evidenced by the recent influx of unaccompanied minors, are unacceptable and dangerous.”

Congressman Farenthold was not in his office Thursday during the protest because he, along with a lot of other Republicans in the state, are at the Republican Convention going on in Fort Worth, Texas.