Immigrant Advocacy Group Heckles Hillary Clinton at Awards Ceremony

Hillary Clinton appeared in Washington last Thursday to present the Medallion of Excellence Award to a Spanish-American chef by the name of Jose Andres. Hillary’s speech was suddenly interrupted with jeers as immigration activist Juan Carlos Ramos called the Democratic candidate out for accepting donations from corporations that operate private prisons.

“My deportation will be your funding!” chanted Ramos. The 22-year-old from Maryland represents United We Dream Action, an immigration advocacy group that attended the awards ceremony specifically to heckle Hillary Clinton. Ramos carried a sign that read Hillary for immigrants in prisons.

The awards ceremony, which took place at the yearly Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute gala, opened with a declaration from Hillary that the GOP field doesn’t view the Latino community like she does. It’s a big problem, she said, “when the leading Republican candidate says Mexicans are rapist and drug dealers.” 

Ramos and his cadre, however, didn’t take the bait. “Each dollar of private prison money accepted by the Clinton campaign undermines her pro-immigrant policy promises,” said Ramos, “and our community will not be fooled.” 

“Our message to Hillary Clinton is simple: Immigrant youth do not trust you. It’s time to drop the prison money and stand with our community – you can’t have it both ways,” said Ramos before being dragged away from the event.

United We Dream criticized Hillary when she told Telemundo that she would not be as aggressive in deporting illegal immigrants as Obama had been. They simply don’t believe her. “She’s saying, ‘this is how it’s going to be like when I’m president’ but she’s accepting money from people deporting our community, what does that say?” asks Ramos. 

Hillary Clinton did not respond to the protestors.