On Sunday, activist group Living United for Change in Arizona, also known as LUCHA, confronted Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in an Arizona State University restroom about the Build Back Better bill that is stalled in Congress.
In two videos released on LUCHA’s Twitter, members of the group criticized her current stance against the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.
🔴BREAKING: Blanca, an AZ immigrant youth confronts @SenatorSinema inside her classroom, where she teaches @ ASU. "in 2010 both my grandparents got deported bc of SB1070...my grandfather passed away 2 wks ago & I wasn't able to go to Mexico bc there is no pathway to citizenship." pic.twitter.com/JDZYY2fOD2
— LUCHA Arizona (@LUCHA_AZ) October 3, 2021
We wouldn't have to resort to confronting @senatorsinema around Phx if she took meetings with the communities that elected her. She's been completely inaccessible. We're sick of the political games, stop playing with our lives.
— LUCHA Arizona (@LUCHA_AZ) October 3, 2021
“Build back better, back the bill!" pic.twitter.com/3OA5t6e6Fl
“We knocked on doors for you, to get you elected, and just how we got you elected we can get you out of office if you don’t support what you promised us," a member said to Sinema in the restroom.
Sinema released a statement, also on Twitter, saying that while she supports the First Amendment and the right to protest, she calls the actions of the members illegitimate.
The Democratic senator said that the immigration reform activists unlawfully entered the campus building, which was only open to ASU students and faculty, and recorded her and her students. Sinema, a former social worker, is a lecturer at ASU's School of Social Work.
“In the 19 years I have been teaching at ASU, I have been committed to creating a safe and intellectually challenging environment for my students," Sinema said. “Yesterday, that environment was breached. My students were unfairly and unlawfully victimized.”
But when President Joe Biden was asked about the incident, he played it down and called it “a part of the process.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.