A nine-day fast is over for 13 protesters pressing the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to decide a challenge to President Obama’s executive order granting millions some relief from the threat of deportation.
The Fair Immigration Reform Movement says that by failing to act on the case, the court is stalling for political reasons.
Activists say families are being split up through deportations. Twenty-six states are opposing the executive order.
Bridgette Gomez of the Center for Community Change and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement has been coordinating the fast.
She says even if the court doesn’t rule soon, the fight for immigration changes will become a national issue in the presidential campaign.
“We will show them at the polls the amount of importance that we immigrants make in this community and that we make in the United States,' she said. "So you will see us at the polls. So we’ll be organizing, we’ll continue to talk to our representatives. We will continue to speak to our leaders so that we can continue to grow and be ready at the polls for them to understand that change has to happen.”
The 13 people who went without food for nine days came from around the country. Doctors from Tulane University Medical Center monitored their health during the protest.
