Immigrant rights advocates who have been fasting for a week walked to John Boehner's office on Tuesday to ask, unsuccessfully, for a meeting, seeking to make their case to the House speaker that he should allow a vote on immigration reform.

They didn't get to the Ohio Republican, who works in the Capitol and not the office they visited. But they met in the hallway with spokeswoman Brittany Bramell, who listened to them speak and promised to pass on their statements. When Eliseo Medina, former secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, asked whether Boehner could meet that day, he was met with a no.
"What about tomorrow?" he said. "Next week?"

Medina, who is 67 years old, hasn't eaten in eight days and doesn't plan to start until Boehner holds a vote on immigration reform. He told reporters he has dropped from 184 pounds to 171 pounds. He and a small group of other reform advocates have been fasting since Nov. 12, joined by others who are abstaining from food for shorter periods, and they say they will continue.

The issue of immigration has been declared dead for the year -- if not longer -- because there are few days left on the legislative calendar and Boehner said they are still working to find principles and draft legislation.

But supporters of comprehensive reform say that a bill like the one that passed the Senate in June could pass the House as well, if Boehner allowed it to go to the House floor. Yet the speaker has said he will not hold a vote on the Senate bill or allow a conference committee to combine it with House-passed legislation. There is a House bill similar to the one approved by the Senate, sponsored by a majority of Democrats and three GOP members, but Republican leadership aides have said it will not go for a vote, either.

Lisa Sharon Harper, director of mobilizing for the Christian social justice group Sojourners, began to cry on the walk to Boehner's office while talking about her hopes for reform.

"We've been working on this for so long," said Harper, who also has been fasting. "And this really is, many believe, the last window that we have coming into early January, and then after that it will get much more difficult to pass anything."

But Harper added that as an evangelical Christian, she believes in resurrection, and she and others think it could happen for immigration reform.
"I don't fast out of worry, I fast out of hope," she said.

The group left a scathing letter for Boehner, asking him why he won't act on immigration reform this year.

"While we understand and appreciate your wish to work part-time for the rest of the year while receiving the benefits of full-time employment, immigrants and working people don't have that luxury," the letter reads in part. "We have to show up and do our jobs every day, lest our pay get docked or be fired for dereliction of duty. Like us, working people, we need the House to show up and do its job. Again, as you have eloquently said, 'inaction is not an option.'"

Along with Harper and Medina, there are three other main fasters: Dae Joong Yoon of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium, Cristian Avila of Mi Familia Vota and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. The group has a constant presence in tents on the National Mall, but they are not allowed to sleep there and must continually man the space so police cannot kick them out. Supporters take shifts.

They have received visits from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and many others, with more to come in the following days. No Republicans have dropped by, according to organizers, but the group dropped by Rep. David Valadao's (R-Calif.) office on Tuesday to ask him to come out and speak with them. He is a supporter of the comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced by Democrats, and they told his staff that they would like to thank him.

Medina asked Bramell, Boehner's spokeswoman, when the speaker might be able to speak to them, but she wasn't able to give an answer.
She simply told them: "I can take your concerns and pass them along."