President Obama And The First Lady Visit Immigration Hunger Strikers

 

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama spent part of the day after Thanksgiving with immigration reform activists camped out on Capitol Hill.

Of the 20 activists the First Couple spoke to inside a heated tent on Friday, three have not eaten for more than two weeks.

The president reportedly told the group that he supported their effort but worried about the health of the hunger strikers.

“He said we might think about handing the torch over and taking a break,” activist Christian Avila told the Los Angeles Times.

House Republican leaders have said that there will be no votes on immigration reform this year and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has vowed to never bring the bipartisan reform package that passed the Senate earlier this year up for consideration on the House floor.

The president said he was willing to work with the piecemeal approach the House GOP has said it will pursue, likely after the deadline for candidates to pose primary challenges passes early next year, as long as all the parts are there.

“If this Congress doesn’t get immigration reform done, then a lot of us are going to work as hard as we can to elect a Congress in 2014 that will,” Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, told USA Today.

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