January 30, 2018

Rep. Ruben Gallego Announces State of the Union Guest

WASHINGTON, DC ­– Today, Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-07) announced that his guest at the 2018 State of the Union address will be Antonio Valdovinos of Phoenix, Arizona. Each year, Members of Congress are permitted one guest to attend the President's address.

Antonio is a 27-year old DACA recipient, who became involved in politics and community activism after being denied entry to the Marine Corps due to his legal status. In 2011, Antonio was one of the founding members of Team Awesome, a group of Dreamers who canvassed to get progressives elected to the Phoenix City Council. He then founded his own business, La Machine, focused on executing grassroots activism, community engagement and voter contact programs in Arizona and the Southwest.

"Like so many Dreamers, Antonio is a patriotic young man who is working hard and contributing to our community. And like hundreds of thousands of Dreamers across this country, his life was placed in limbo when Donald Trump made the cruel and callous decision to end the DACA program," said Rep. Ruben Gallego.

"I hope that President Trump and his administration will take notice of the Dreamers who attend tonight's address and it will remind them to get to work to fix the problem they created."