A radical pro-immigration group called National Immigrant Youth Alliance thumbed its nose at the White House on Thursday ahead of a major executive action announcement on deportations.
The White House, as it often does with major announcements, distributed some information to advocacy groups ahead of time, on the condition that it be embargoed (in this case until 6 p.m. ET).
The NIYA, which was offered an embargoed preview by the White House, posted the document online with this message:
Ideally we would have respected an embargo, but after 2 million deportations the President has lost a tad bit of respect from our organization. We don’t care to play on their terms. . .
NIYA is viewed as a fringe group even within the pro-immigration community, adopting tactics like infiltrating federal detention centers and secretly recording a private conversation between immigration-reform champion Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) with the parents of immigrants who had been detained. Gutiérrez’s office said it would no longer work with the NIYA and has published a list of incendiary social media postings by the group’s leader.