Immigration Focus of Live Capitol Hill Media Marathon April 9-10
50 Radio Hosts Have Message for Boehner and GOP; Scrap Amnesty, Compel Obama to Enforce Existing Laws
WASHINGTON, April 7, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2014, an annual radio row organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) may be one of this year's best indicators for the future of immigration reform. The event occurs on April 9 and 10 at the Phoenix Park Hotel on Capitol Hill and features the largest gathering ever of talk radio hosts assembled on a single issue. Dozens of hosts from across the country will spend two days discussing immigration policy with listeners, lawmakers, law enforcement, immigration experts, activists, and members of the media live from radio row while broadcasting their shows back to their home markets.
Credentialed members of the press are welcome. In particular, reporters covering the national immigration debate will have access to a wide variety of personalities and perspectives all in one location.
Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2014 will occur while the Department of Homeland Security is reviewing their deportation practices with a goal of expanding the categories of illegal aliens who will be exempted from removal. The national radio row will also coincide with - and attempt to blunt - a massive lobbying effort by special interests to resurrect the Senate amnesty bill and an even more aggressive push by corporate interests to convince House Speaker John Boehner to pass legislation that grants them greater access to low-wage foreign labor, even as some 20 million of Americans are unemployed or underemployed.
The appearance of so many talk hosts coming to Washington punctuates the increasing GOP divide over the immigration issue. When Speaker John Boehner, responding to public disapproval, announced recently that immigration legislation is unlikely in 2014, the Wall Street Journal directly credited talk radio for that decision. 'So great is the House GOP's fear of a talk-radio backlash' that the leadership reversed course on a set of principles they had unveiled only one week earlier.
"The moment the pressure is off, Boehner may proceed with amnesty," said Dan Stein, President of FAIR. "Thus, our goal, and the goal of the hosts participating in Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2014, is to make sure that the House leadership continues to hear the voices of the American people and is reminded that it is their interests that our immigration laws are supposed to serve."
WHAT: Hold Their Feet to the Fire 2014 Radio Row
WHEN: April 9 and 10 from 6:00 am to 9:00 pm
WHERE: Phoenix Park Hotel, 520 North Capitol St., NW (corner of Massachusetts Ave.)
WHO: 50 talk radio hosts, dozens of members of Congress, law enforcement and other policy experts.
HOW: Credentialed media should check in at the Registration Desk, second floor of the hotel for a press pass on the day of the event.
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SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
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