Randy Bryce, a Democrat challenging House Speaker Paul Ryan in the midterm elections later this year, was arrested at a protest supporting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which expired earlier this week.
DACA, a program enacted during the Obama administration, shields undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children from deportation. President Donald Trump‘s administration announced late last year that they were rescinding the program, leaving Congress until Monday to come up with a new solution. Since then Trump has tried to cast blame on Democrats for inaction on the program despite the fact his administration ended it.
The protest, which took place outside of Ryan’s office in Racine, Wisconsin, involved students walking out of their classes and others who shouted “this is what democracy looks like.” Several protesters locked arms on a main thoroughfare in Racine wearing bright green shirts, the Journal Times reports.
During the protest, Bryce, who gained some notoriety after releasing an ad last year announcing his candidacy, and Cathy Myers, another Democratic congressional candidate hoping to face off against Ryan, were among 25 people arrested, according to a local Patch.
In a statement given to Patch, Bryce’s campaign said they were arrested after sitting “peacefully” in the intersection near of Ryan’s office.
“Randy was arrested with about 20 [sic] other demonstrators in an act of civil disobedience in support a clean Dream Act,” the statement provided to the news outlet read. “Today is the deadline that Trump imposed for Congress to act. As area students demonstrated on the sidewalks, they sat peacefully in the intersection of 6th and Main, near Paul Ryan’s Racine office. After 10 minutes, the police arrested them and placed them in police vans.”
All of those arrested were given a citation and released, WISN12 reported.
.@IronStache, community leaders, and I are in front of @SpeakerRyan’s office right now to demand a #CleanDreamAct. #HereToStay #HereToFight pic.twitter.com/A46jlX1bSt
— JoCasta Zamarripa (@repjocasta) March 5, 2018
Congress tried and failed to pass an immigration bill in February that would have addressed DACA.
On Monday several other protests were held in support of DACA. While Congress failed to act before the March 5 deadline, it’s possible that lawmakers may try and attach a DACA solution to a spending bill Congress will need to pass by March 23.