Washington, D.C. – With several of her colleagues from the Congressional Black Caucus, Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke visited this afternoon with activists who have been fasting on the National Mall to protest that failure of Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to allow a vote on immigration reform.

The people fasting included representatives of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Service Employees International Union, the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, the AFL-CIO, the Franciscan Action Network, and members of the clergy.

“These men and women have demonstrated by their sacrifice a moral commitment to fairness for the eleven million Americans who currently lack legal status in the United States,” said Congresswoman Clarke. “The system of immigration we have today threatens families and children in every community with deportation – in effect, the separation of parents from their children and brothers from their sisters. We cannot maintain a system that does not represent our shared values, our belief that stable families are the foundation of society.”

In July, the Senate passed an immigration reform bill that would allow most of the victims of our failed system of immigration to obtain status as legal permanent residents and, eventually, to become citizens.

The activists fasting on the National Mall included: Rudy Lopez, Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, Patrick Carolan, Mary Rein, David Huerta, Denise Solis, Maria Trujillo, Austin Thompson, Rabbi Steve Gutow, Reverend Anthony Suarez, John Kerr, Tom Snyder, Diana Bui, and Salvador Zamora.

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.