Sen. Marco Rubio Heckled During Poverty Forum
Marco Rubio's immigration platform doesn't quite sit well with the Hispanic community as he was heckled during a poverty forum on Saturday.
According to CNN, this is the Cuban-American senator's first incident of heckling during his speech. During the Kemp Forum on Expanding Opportunity, Rubio is set to give his speech when repeated chants of "undocumented and unafraid" began to fill the room.
One activist even manages to shout "Rubio does not represent the Hispanic community. He wants to deport our families." Security officials couldn't help but to guide the man out of the room.
Despite being heckled, Rubio went on to address his thoughts about the immigration laws, saying "We're going to enforce our immigration laws, guys." Security officer Sgt. Paul Blendowski said that no arrest happened after the incident. However, he made it clear that it is the request of the event property management to ask anyone who causes chaos to leave.
An advocacy organization called United We Dream did not pass on the chance to criticize Rubio on the incident, saying that the senator turned his back on immigrants. Rubio is known to oppose the policy that protects undocumented immigrants who reached the U.S. as children.
Deya Aldana from New Jersey claimed that Rubio shattered her, as well as other immigrants dreams, of the opportunity to work and be protected from the possibility of getting deported. She also believes that the senator has totally turned his back on the immigrant community.
Rubio was once the author of an immigration reform bill, a bipartisan one that could have eventually come up to a softer decision on the immigration laws. When the bill was dissolved in the House, Rubio slowly shied away from it. The bill is supposed to pave the road for undocumented immigrants to a better life in the U.S.
Latino Rebels also cited some incidents where the Cuban-American senator turned his back on immigrants such as his opposed idea on the DREAM Act, declaring it as too broad. The DREAM Act is a legislative proposal that could have served undocumented immigrants with conditional residency and eventually permanent residency. He then softened the issue by saying that he would propose his own version of the DREAM Act, where immigrants were met with a zero proposal from Rubio.
He also criticized the Differed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) saying, "When the president ignores the Congress, ignores the Constitution and forces a policy like this down the throat of the American people, it's going to make it harder to have a conversation."
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