Protesters demand Democrats 'override the parliamentarian' during immigration protest on Golden Gate Bridge

Traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge was brought to a temporary halt Thursday morning, as protesters imploring Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants exited their cars and took over the iconic San Francisco landmark, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

As the car backlog piled up, demonstrators rebelled against "Democrats' lack of action to pass meaningful immigration reform," writes the Chronicle. Dozens, if not all, of the protesters were undocumented, adding a harrowing-yet-powerful layer to the early-morning traffic jam, which continued for about an hour.

"We are escalating our actions and our undocumented families are risking arrest and possibly deportation to send the message we can no longer wait," said undocumented immigrant and DACA recipient Luis Angel Reyes Savalza.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The protest was organized by the Movement for Citizenship for All and the Bay Area Coalition for Economic Justice and Citizenship for All, and also focused on climate and racial justice issues, the Chronicle reports. Demonstrators carried an "override the parliamentarian" banner, demanding Democrats ignore the decision to exclude immigration provisions from the party's $3.5 trillion spending package.

Said Reyes Savalza on Thursday: "We have learned from this and call on all undocumented immigrants and our allies to unite and strike, this time for citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country." Read more at the San Francisco Chronicle.