If you thought the House of Representatives might make a decision on immigration reform before the five-week summer recess, think again. Today is the last day before the summer recess and immigration reform won’t be resolved before September. To protest Congress’s continued inaction on this issue, activists came together in Washington DC yesterday and blocked traffic in an act of civil disobedience. Forty one people were arrested, among them union members from the AFL-CIO and the United Farm Workers.
Meanwhile, other activists continued riffing on Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) choice words equating immigrants to beefy drug runners by hand delivering cantaloupes to 224 members of Congress. Here’s one young undocumented woman in the act.
@UNITEDWEDREAM just delivered cantaloupes to Rep. Kings office pic.twitter.com/U4tYAc5fcJ
— Maria Cabello (@MariFer2013) July 25, 2013
In solidarity with recent actions, undocumented immigrants and advocates started flexing their calves for immigration reform and sharing photos of their calves via social media with the hashtag #nocantaloupecalveshere. None of the calves pictured appear to be cantaloupe-sized.
Definitely undocucalves but NOT drug runner calves #nocantaloupecalveshere @SteveKingIA pic.twitter.com/QqtQpwJlpI
— Ray Jose (@Rayzorsharp23) July 25, 2013
#nocantaloupecalveshere @americasvoice what do you think of these @stevekingiaSteveKingIA ? Drug mule quality? pic.twitter.com/0AKWNsUp73
— natalie cruz (@nataliec91) July 25, 2013
#nocantaloupecalveshere dreamer yes, drug mule never @SteveKingIA @americasvoice pic.twitter.com/wwdTPZaR78
— Francisco (@GONFRA87) July 27, 2013
Photo: #nocantaloupecalveshere! Our calves are strong from supporting the dreams of aspiring citizens…. http://t.co/Cxw4KhgDvG
— LatinoJustice PRLDEF (@latinojustice) August 2, 2013
My strong and colorful calves. Never so proud of them. @americasvoice #NoCantaloupeCalvesHere pic.twitter.com/eNqV3VLydQ
— María Arce (@Maria_Arce) July 26, 2013