Immigrant rights organizers return to the MN State Capitol to demand: Hands off health care! Health care for all!
Saint Paul, MN – As the Minnesota governor and legislators continue to meet behind closed doors and with a special session still looming, more than 50 people from the immigrant rights movement returned to protest Governor Tim Walz’s office in the State Capitol on June 2. This comes about a week after a similar action. The protest was another mobilization in response to Governor Walz and legislative leaders announcing that they intend to pass a budget that takes away access to healthcare from undocumented adults in the state.
Since his vice-presidential run, Governor Walz has positioned himself as a champion of health care on the national level, even arguing that Democrats need to stop tinkering on the edges of the Affordable Care Act and enact universal health care.
But in Minnesota, he, along with Democratic Party state legislative leaders, is proposing to take healthcare access away from thousands of Minnesota residents.
The protest began in the hallway outside Walz’s office with spirited chants of “DFL take a stand! Healthcare should be your demand!” and “DFL shame on you, immigrants are people too!” The group filled out comment forms for the governor’s office demanding he protect healthcare for undocumented adults and handed them to his office receptionist. The office tried to close about 30 minutes into the protest but was forced to remain open an extra ten minutes due to attendees continuing to fill out and hand in comment forms.
Once comment forms were handed in and the office closed, the crowd heard from a group of speakers from immigrant rights organizations. The group loudly chanted and marched around the Capitol rotunda, finally returning to the governor's office where they closed out the action.
Legislators continue to meet behind closed doors to try to hammer out a budget deal, but keep missing their own self-imposed deadlines. As long as they continue to meet, protest organizers are asking Minnesotans to continue to call their state legislators and Governor Walz to demand that they stop trying to take health care access away from immigrants.
The protest was initiated by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee and endorsed and supported by Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, Minnesota Immigrant Movement, Minnesota 8, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Minnesota, 50501 Minnesota, the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee, among many others.