Activists corner Kyrsten Sinema in bathroom over refusal to support Biden agenda

‘We knocked on doors for you to get you elected’

Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema was cornered in a bathroom in Phoenix on Sunday as a group of youth activists questioned her about her stance on immigration laws in the state.

Looking to speak with the Democratic senator, who is one of the two holdouts standing in the way of the passage of a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package, the activists bombarded her with questions at the Arizona State University, where she is a lecturer.

As she walked out of a classroom, the activists confronted the senator and told her “we need a ‘build back better’ plan right now”.

“Actually, I am heading out,” the senator said in response as she walked into a bathroom, according to a video posted by local organisation Living United for Change in Arizona (Lucha).

“We knocked on doors for you to get you elected,” one of the activists could be heard saying in the video. “Just how we got you elected, we can get you out of office if you don’t support what you promised us.”

“My name is Blanca,” another activist could be heard saying over the sound of the bathroom flush. “I was brought here to the United States when I was three years old. And in 2010, both of my grandparents got deported because of SB 1070,” she said referring to the stringent anti-illegal immigration law in Arizona.

The 2010 law makes the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and gives the police broad powers to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.

Blanca added: “I’m here because I definitely believe that we need a pathway to citizenship. My grandfather passed away two weeks ago and I was not able to go to Mexico to visit him because there is no pathway to citizenship. And if we have the opportunity to pass it right now, then we need to do it because there’s millions of undocumented people, just like me, who share the same story...”

“We need to hold you accountable to what you told us... what you promised us that you were going to pass when we knocked on doors for you,” Blanca can be heard saying as Ms Sinema continues to use the washroom. “It’s not right.”

The senator ignored the activists as she stepped out of the bathroom stall and washed her hands.

Sharing another video of the confrontation on its Twitter handle, Lucha, which identifies itself as a group “fighting for social, racial [and] economic transformation”, said they wouldn’t have had to confront senator Sinema “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,” said the group sharing another video, seemingly from the same encounter.

The activists, believed to be immigrant youth, could be heard chanting slogans such as “Build back better, back the bill!” and “Undocumented! Unafraid!” as they followed the senator in the college corridor.

Republican representative Matt Gaetz shared the video of the encounter on his Twitter handle with the hashtag: “#DeportBlanca.”

Democrat senators Sinema and Joe Manchin have opposed the budget reconciliation package over its massive price tag. The bill includes big-ticket priorities like universal pre-kindergarten education, paid family and medical leave, home and community-based care for elderly people and people with disabilities and needs 51-vote majority to overcome a filibuster.

The bill was also set to include a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants but the Senate parliamentarian ruled that Democrats could not add immigration provisions to their package.