Pablo Manríquez

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ivelisse Alexandra Porroa-García is a Latina outwardly brimming with a self-confidence that allows her to operate as a top legislative staffer in the Capitol, but she says her main insecurity at work is her Peruvian accent.

The House of Representatives was back in the Capitol on Tuesday where Latino Rebels asked members about the future of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Congressional Progressive Staff Association (CPSA) claims 580 members just 11 weeks after the group received June approval as an official staff association, Latino Rebels has learned.

“One of the ways that [a pathway to citizenship] can be included [in budget reconciliation] is in some of the essential worker and frontline worker provisions that we saw in our first reconciliation package with the American Rescue Plan,” Ocasio-Cortez told LR outside the House chamber after votes on Monday.

“What better way to address DACA than by having the person who issued the executive order that created the program?” Francisco López told Latino Rebels.

“I’m grateful for all [Veronica’s] continued work in my office,” Booker said in a statement to Latino Rebels. “Her presence and leadership style are rooted in love and compassion and it allows her to see things differently than most.

“In terms of ICE’s specific budget [for 2022], I can’t tell you if it increased or whether it stays the same,” House Homeland Security chair Bennie Thompson (D-MI) told Latino Rebels last month in the Speaker’s lobby.

“We’d like to make it as robust as possible,” Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) told Latino Rebels in the Senate tunnels on Tuesday afternoon.

“Senator Sanders provided $126 billion dollars for ensuring that the cost of a process of legalization incorporating people into our country and providing a pathway to citizenship addresses the fiscal aspects of such an undertaking,” García told Latino Rebels Thursday evening in the Speaker’s Lobby. 

“I think at bare minimum it has to be extended until the end of the year,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters outside the House chamber on Thursday afternoon. “The Biden administration saying it should be extended until September is absolutely unacceptable.”

“They don’t want Internet in Cuba because they think it endangers their servers,” Rubio told Latino Rebels on Monday. “They have servers on the island. They want to do business there. That’s the problem with them.”

“There’s a 2005 reconciliation bill that had a significant immigration component to it that included changing status,” Kaine (D-VA) told Latino Rebels on Monday afternoon in the Senate tunnels. 

“If you have balloons, it has an omnidirectional signal. I know the balloon is there. I know the signal comes down. I block it,” said Menendez, who like Rubio, is of Cuban descent.

“The time is very long overdue for us to have comprehensive reform and why many people say it will be in there,” Senator Sanders told Latino Rebels on Tuesday afternoon, “but this is something that will need to go through the parliamentarian.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Angus King (D-ME) told Latino Rebels on Monday afternoon that a proposal by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) requiring all Americans, including women, to register for the military draft will be debated “over the next couple of days” in the markup of the National Defense Authorization Act.

“I’m certainly for immigration reform,” Cardin told Latino Rebels on Thursday. “I think it’s in the agreement, the dollars it involves.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Latino Rebels returned to the Capitol this week where on Monday afternoon and Tuesday we asked Senators to comment on reports of unrest in Cuba over existing shortages of food and medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Membership in the Daily Press Gallery gives Futuro, the Harlem-based publisher of Latino Rebels, full press access to the Capitol complex for their correspondent.

“If the parent and the child have an ITIN [Individual Taxpayer Identification Number], that should suffice for the family to be able to receive the credit,” First Lady Jill Biden’s chief of staff Julissa Reynoso told Latino Rebels.

About 50 Puerto Rico statehood supporters gathered Tuesday in Union Square on Capitol Hill to support H.R. 1522, the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act.

In 1947, Louis R. Lautier applied for press access to the Capitol’s Daily Press Gallery, governed then (and now) by an all-white Standing Committee of Correspondents (Standing Committee).