Immigrants Rights Leader: Rahm Shouldn’t Run for Mayor
As Rahm Emanuel weighs his decision about whether to run for Chicago mayor, he may face opposition from at least one group: the immigrants rights community.
Jul 31, 2020111.1K Shares2M Views
As Rahm Emanuel weighs his decisionabout whether to run for Chicago mayor, he may face opposition from at least one group: the immigrants rights community. “The immigrant communities do not want Rahm Emanuel to come home without immigration reform,” Joshua Hoyt, executive director, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said on a conference call yesterday. “The Latino communities will be behind [Rep. Luis] Gutierrez.”
Supporters of immigration reform have been disappointed by the Obama administration’s actions on immigration reform, arguing they stepped up enforcement without providing relief to non-criminal immigrants living in the U.S. Obama promised immigration reformduring his first year as president, but did not deliver.
Gutierrez, a longtime advocate of immigration reform in Congress, has criticized Emanuel for the administration’s inaction on immigration reform. He said in AprilEmanuel “better stay in the White House” and that he would not endorse him if he ran for Chicago mayor.
Of course, Gutierrez is also contemplating a runfor the spot in the wake of Mayor Richard Daley’s planned retirement. And although Hoyt said the Illinois immigrants rights community would be behind him, nationwide advocates of reform argue he can better servethe cause in Congress. “We want him to stay in Congress,” Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of immigration advocacy group America’s Voice, told The Hill. “We need him here. We want him here.”
Rhyley Carney
Reviewer
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