Hundreds March from Alexandria to the White House to Push President to Act Fast on Immigration Reform

As the country balks at Arizona’s harsh new law that creates a police state, subjects every Latino citizen to harassment and undermines community policing, hundreds of protesters marched from Alexandria to the White House on Saturday, May 1 to call attention to lack of leadership by the Obama Administration and the ongoing separation of immigrant families by DHS.

Local student, Margie Obeng, a junior at TC Williams High School will speak at an afternoon rally scheduled on May 1, 2010 at the White House. As a Ghanaian immigrant to the United States, the fight for immigration reform is relevant to her life and has inspired her to speak out about the urgent need for immigration reform.

“Principles of justice and freedom are important in our house,” says Margie Obeng, “Last I checked America meant all different kinds of people and was based on those same values.”

In addition, Tenants and Workers United’s Executive Director Jon Liss will participate in civil disobedience planned to call attention on the ongoing separation of families due to current immigration enforcement raids and the failure of the Obama Administration to provide leadership on this issue.

“President Obama can stop the suffering of families divided across the nation through an executive order to stop the raids,” says Jon Liss, “In Arizona the legalization of racial profiling is the cost of inaction at a federal level to enact immigration reform. We will not stand for that to happen in Virginia.