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What is Speaker Boehner Hiding From?

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Today, on the 21st day of the ongoing #Fast4Families, immigrants and advocates journeyed to Speaker Boehner’s office on the Hill to deliver an invitation asking him to meet with the fasters.  Numerous elected officials, from President Obama to Joe Biden to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Republican members of the House, have already visited the fast.

As an excerpt from the letter to Speaker Boehner today reads:

Thirteen days ago, we invited you to meet with us to discuss the toll our broken immigration system is taking on families and communities. We have yet to receive a response from your office.

In the meantime, more than 20,000 families have been ripped apart by deportations and 30 people have died in the desert while attempting to come to America in search of the American Dream. We know these numbers will only continue to grow until we come together to find a permanent solution that will prevent these human tragedies from happening again and again.

Now, we ask again. We respectfully invite you to join us at the Fast for Families community tent on the National Mall.

Boehner’s staff, however (despite the placard saying “Welcome, come on in”), locked the door on the advocates coming to speak with him and refused to engage.  This is at least the third time in recent days that his office staff has barricaded itself in rather than speak to immigrants and advocates who are only asking for a vote.  After all, Boehner has already given one such vote to Steve King, on an amendment to deport DREAMers.  Why is the Speaker now hiding?

View some of the tweets from today: