Jorge Mursuli, national executive director of Democracia USA, a nonpartisan program of People For the American Way Foundation, issued the following statement regarding yesterday’s election in Virginia:

“Virginia voters today sent a powerful message with their ballots: Scapegoating immigrants is not a winning strategy.

“Voters rejected the candidates who pushed aside the issues that truly matter to Virginians and instead tried to pin all of the state’s ills on immigrant workers.

“We understand that Congress’ inability to solve our immigration crisis has angered a lot of people, but fear mongering is not the solution. Instead, we should focus on finding real solutions for our broken immigration system.”