8 Year Old Girl's Blood On Republican Speaker Boehner's Hands


Phoenix, AZ -- Somos Independents is a Mexican-American woman voter group that encourages Getting Out The Vote and legal immigration. It is with great sadness to learn another child has taken her life because she felt she had no hope and could not connect with her parents. The Demcoratic-led Senate passed immigration reform approximately 8 months ago while the Republican-led House of Representatives continue to do nothing. 

Co-founder of Somos Independents, Shirl Mora James, also a Civil Rights and Immigration Lawyer states:

This is another horrible example of why we need immigration reform – so children are not put in this type of situation where he/she thinks the only alternative is death. Shame on the GOP for not passing immigration reform. 

This tragedy reminds us of Joaquin Luna, Jr. who Joaquin Luna, Jr. who felt the same pressures many young Americans do when facing personal challenges and ongoing depression when he finally took his life. 

Nina Hinojosa, a surviving family member of the late Joaquin Luna Jr. states: 

We need to investigate why the Border Patrol (BP) did not turn the 8 year old girl to the child protective services. BP needs to make sure they know where that child is going to be because she is not a grown up, yet. BP needs to know who they are handing that child to for safety reasons and the girl should have been protected. We can't throw children away like that. We treat animals better than that. This is why immigration reform needs to be fixed because now the parents might be afraid to go see their daughter and give their daughter the proper burial she deserves. We want the officials who are blocking immigration to understand how frustrating this is because another child has taken her life and the Republicans blocking this still cannot open their eyes. 

Carlos Galindo, a nationally syndicated radio political talk show and a key swing independent voter states: 

It is precisely these heart wrenching stories of real time suffering that reflects the pain children of Immigrants have to endure as they are separated from their parents because of an unrealistic labor system that entices parents to take that trek through the unforgiving Arizona desert. We eat the produce they pick daily, yet we don't understand that what we consume is brought to our homes by these low skilled laborers that we utilize as our modern day slaves trapped in the shadows, bound by their own chains of fear. This is the reality of a failed Immigration system that leaves in its wake devastated lives, all for the benefit of us, a privileged people, who reside within the United States. 

DeeDee Garcia Blase, also co-founder of Somos Independents who left the Republican Party in light of their anti-immigrant sentiment states: 

There will be hell to pay during the 2014 and 2016 elections as we remind our voting 'gente' how inhumane the GOP has become. We know there are thousands of new coming of age Latin voters every year, and the Republican Party's refusal to fix the clearly broken immigration system will put them on a firm path to extinction. Shame on Speaker Boehner who comes from Irish ancestry. If men in power cannot fix broken systems, then they ought to step aside and let compassionate women who care for children to do the job they cannot do.