PRESS
RELEASE
from
DRM
Capitol
Group
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 14, 2012
Contact:
Pablo Reyes
Undocumented
Youth
Launch
4-State
Tour
to Confront Mitt Romney On His Extreme
Immigration Position.
WHO:
DREAM
Team Los Angeles, IDEAS UCLA, National Pursuit of DREAMs, DREAM
Action Coalition, Salt Lake Dream Team (UT), Dream Action Florida, DFW
Action Team (TX)
WHEN:
Monday , September 17, 2012 at 10:30AM
WHERE:
Los Angeles Convention Center 1201 S. Figueroa Street Los Angeles,
California 90015
LOS
ANGELES – Undocumented youth will confront Republican nominee
Mitt Romney in a 4 state tour kicking off with hundreds of DREAMers
coming out to rally against Mitt Romney
in Los Angeles, where he will speak at the Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce. For the immigrant and LGBT community, the worst of the
extreme rhetoric has either come from, or was embraced by, Romney. The
Romney campaign continues to ignore immigration for fear of alienating
Latinos. The economy is a top issue, just as they are for all voters.
But Latinos don't appreciate candidates who demonize immigrants either.
On
immigration,
Mitt
has embraced Arizona’s SB1070, promised to veto the
DREAM Act, put forward a “self-deportation”
policy to do everything he could to drive undocumented immigrants out,
no matter the means. He has yet to explain what he would do about
President Obama’s executive DREAM Act, a program already providing
undocumented students a chance at an education and saving them from a
constant fear of deportation. The government has reported that nearly
72,000 young people have a applied, a low number that some has said
results from the uncertainty of what Romney would do if he won the
White House.
Although Romney is incredibly secretive, his rhetoric on immigration
was clear during the primaries, and it isn’t difficult to speculate
that he would END the program.
On
gay
issues,
roughly a week after the story of him brutally bullying a
classmate for possibly being gay was covered in the media, Romney went
to Liberty University to give a commencement speech where he
rededicated himself to a “traditional” definition of marriage that
excludes gays. Romney comes from a party with a recent history of
discriminating against gays that includes fighting the repeal of Don’t
Ask Don’t Tell, pushing legislation like the Defense of Marriage Act
and Prop 8
to block gay marriage in California. Many undocumented young people
also come from the LGBTQ community and we stand in solidarity.
The
DREAMers
will be waiting for Romney in Salt Lake City, Dallas, and Miami.
As
DREAMers continue their ambitious operation to register and inform
voters, it is clear that Mitt Romney has failed to genuinely connect
with Latino voters as he continues to stand by his extreme positions on
immigration and gay rights.
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