Golden Gate Bridge traffic was halted Thursday morning as a group of about 25 vehicles stopped in the middle of the bridge, blocking traffic as demonstrators held signs and gave speeches from the bed of a pickup truck.
The protest was organized by Bay Area Coalition for Economic Justice and Citizenship for All, and as KRON4 reports, it began around 7 a.m. in the northbound (Marin-bound) lanes of the bridge, but CHP ultimately blocked the southbound lanes as well, creating backups in both directions. The demonstration was meant to last for about 20 minutes, but an alert about the blocked lanes went out from the SF Department of Emergency Management at 7:30 a.m.
A Facebook live video from the group Bay Resistance showed the protest as it began.
ALERTSF: A Civic Demonstration is affecting Golden Gate Bridge in the northbound and southbound directions.
— San Francisco Department of Emergency Management😷 (@SF_emergency) September 30, 2021
Expect delays and use alternate routes. Check https://t.co/KhHeZtPDpK for realtime traffic and transit updates. https://t.co/pdycXVOxxu
At the front of the protest was a large banner saying "Override the Parliamentarian," and another sign held by one of the speakers said "Kamala: Override the Parliamentarian." Various signs referred to "Citizenship for All" and "Pass the $3.5 trillion spending bill."
One demand of the protesters is for Senate Democrats to pass a citizenship bill through the budget reconciliation process.
The statement below from the organizers was emailed to various news outlets:
Immigrant communities cannot wait another 20 years of failed promises. An inclusive pathway to citizenship would boost the U.S. economy. As the Center for American Progress reports, a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants would increase U.S. gross domestic product by a cumulative total of $1.7 trillion over 10 years, create 438,800 new jobs, and increase wages for undocumented and American workers. The time to deliver economic justice, climate justice, and citizenship for all is now.
For these reasons, we demand that Vice President Harris and top Democrats in Congress override the decision by the unelected Senate parliamentarian which excludes undocumented immigrants from the budget reconciliation process.
According to NBC Bay Area, traffic began moving again in the southbound lanes of the bridge around 7:30 a.m., and traffic in the northbound direction began clearing at 7:45 a.m.
Photo via Bay Resistance
