Official Statement from Alex Gomez & Tomas Robles, Co-Executive Directors of LUCHA:

March 5th, 2021

The COVID-19 Pandemic and the economic turmoil have hit our communities incredibly hard, many have lost their jobs, their businesses, and most importantly their loved ones. The type of leadership that we expect from our elected officials in times like these is compassionate leadership, leadership that is focused on serving the needs of our community. Leadership that acts with integrity, and a sense of urgency. On today’s Senate floor, our Senators had the opportunity to uplift millions of people who have kept this country moving forward out of poverty. Unfortunately, the $15 minimum wage amendment died on the floor, and now millions will continue to endure the economic hardship of not being paid a liveable wage.

Our community deserves better, but we want to take a moment here to thank Senator Kelly for doing the right thing to vote in favor of raising the minimum wage. That is an example of an elected official meeting the moment. However, we are incredibly disappointed but not surprised that Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema failed to meet the needs of her constituents. The bottom line our state deserves better representation than this. While the COVID-19 Relief bill continues to be debated on the Senate floor, Republican’s like Ted Cruz is taking advantage of the situation to propose atrocious amendments to vital COVID-19 relief, the Cruz Amendment would strip away critical COVID Relief funding from mixed-status families, including 5.1 million Americans, and other immigrant families. That is an outrageous and bigoted attack on our immigrant communities that must be stopped, and we demand our two Senators of Arizona vote NO on the Cruz Amendment!