A group of essential workers, many of them immigrants, rallied at the White House on Thursday in support of the Democratic presidential nominee.
With chants of “fire the liar” and others in Spanish, they hoped to turn out Black and Latino voters, who may be voting for the first time, for former Vice President Joe Biden.
The rally was organized by a branch of the Service Employees International Union and the group CASA in Action that said President Donald Trump’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has put essential workers’ lives at risk. They also accused Trump of waging a war on immigrants.
First-time voter Silvia Cabrera, an SEIU member from Falls Church who cleans commercial buildings in Virginia, said through a translator that she decided to become a U.S. citizen so she could vote.
Cabrera questioned why others would become U.S. citizens if they were not willing to go to the polls. She also voiced her support for Biden.
Union branch 32BJ aims to register 8,000 union voters in Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania. CASA in Action said it will reach almost 200,000 “low-propensity voters of color” in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
