House Democrats Arrested: 8 Handcuffed By Police During Immigration Reform Protest In Washington DC [VIDEO]

Eight House Democrats were among 200 demonstrators arrested on Tuesday after they marched from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where supporters of immigration reform were taking part in a massive rally, to a main street in front of the Capitol building, where they sat or stood, blocking traffic. Organizers of the rally had planned what they said was an act of civil disobedience in order to pressure House Republicans into considering a comprehensive immigration reform bill. U.S. Capitol Police told the LA Times the demonstrators would be charged with the misdemeanor of "crowding, obstructing and incommoding." The crowd assembled around those arrested cheered as they were led off by Capitol Police.

According to the Associated Press and representatives of the social policy organization Center for Community Change, who witnessed the arrests, the Democratic lawmakers were Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Charles Rangel (D-N.Y), Al Green (D-Texas), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), and Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.). The LA Times reports that before Gutiérrez was arrested, he said he planned the act of civil disobedience "so the speaker of the House can free Congress and finally pass immigration reform." House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has refused to introduce a comprehensive, bipartisan Senate bill -- which passed the Senate by a large margin in June -- to the House floor for debate, saying it doesn't have the support of most of the House's Republican majority. Democrats in both chambers as well as President Barack Obama have said they think the Senate bill would pass the House if Boehner were to introduce it, sending it to the desk of the president, who supports it. In a mid-September interview, President Obama told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, "If Speaker Boehner put that bill on the floor of the House of Representatives right now, it would pass. It would pass."

The White House issued a statement shortly after the arrests, saying, "The enthusiastic demonstration of support for immigration reform this week has proven to Congress that the broad coalition behind commonsense solutions to our nation's broken immigration laws is as strong as it has ever been," it said. "It's time for the House of Representatives to reopen the government, pay their bills and get back to the important work of moving the economy forward."

The demonstrators were part of a rally on the closed National Mall -- which was reopened to host the pre-planned event on 1st Amendment grounds --the "Camino Americano: Rally for Immigrant Dignity and Respect." One of the organizers, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said in a press release that demonstrators would be pushing for "immigration reform that ends deportations and wasteful spending on border militarization and push forward for a path to citizenship for 11 million aspiring citizens that keeps families together and protects workers' rights." Musical acts Los Tigres del Norte, Lila Downs, and Olga Tañón also performed.

Among non-lawmakers arrested were Maria Elena Durazo, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; members of groups such as the United Farm Workers and Farmworker Justice; and Gustavo Torres, director of the immigrant-rights group CASA de Maryland.

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