Immigration activists from the pro-immigration group, RAICES (the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services) interrupted former Vice President Joe Biden as he tried to make his closing statement during Wednesday night’s debate, screaming about “three million deported” and “kids in cages” — two immigration issues most often pinned on President Donald Trump, but which originated in the Obama Administration.
WATCH:
WATCH: Protesters interrupt the #DemDebate as the debate nears end. pic.twitter.com/pybqj99BKE
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 20, 2020
“You deported 3 million people!” they yelled.
The protesters were escorted out of the arena, but RAICES took to Twitter immediately to elaborate on what happened, and how disrupting the Democratic debate had been part of a pre-arranged protest.
“BREAKING,” the group tweeted. “We are interrupting @JoeBiden at the #DemDebate chanting #DontLookAway and #NoKidsInCages,” the group tweeted. “We need a Democratic candidate to adopt the #MigrantJusticePlatform and commit themselves to improve the lives of migrants and refugees!”
BREAKING: We are interrupting @JoeBiden at the #DemDebate chanting #DontLookAway and #NoKidsInCages. We need a Democratic candidate to adopt the #MigrantJusticePlatform and commit themselves to improve the lives of migrants and refugees! https://t.co/AfnRR2QxcS
— RAICES Action (@RAICESACTION) February 20, 2020
RAICES and other pro-immigration groups are targeting Biden likely on behalf of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), though unofficially, of course. They’ve been interrupting Biden’s rallies and appearances in both Nevada and South Carolina, trying to drive home that the Obama Administration’s immigration policies aren’t that much different from the Trump Administration’s — a key issue with Nevada’s fastest-growing voter demographic, Hispanics.
Ahead of the Iowa caucuses, the group commissioned street artists to erect public displays of “kids in cages” (pictured in RAICES’ tweet above) to remind voters of Biden’s “complicity” in ICE raids, imprisonment, family separations, and deportations.
“The horrors at our border and throughout our immigration system are too often ignored by the public and politicians,” RAICES’ “chief advocacy officer” said in a statement at the time, defending the displays. “We’re asking people in Iowa and across the country: Don’t look away from the terrors enacted in your name. This anti-immigrant crackdown has to end.”
“As you might have seen, we just interrupted the Democratic debate,” one of the protesters later told media, according to Newsweek, “and the biggest reason why we did that and we interrupted Biden is because for the last three debates, there has been absolutely no questions about immigration.”
“We decided to interrupt,” the protester added. “We’re not sorry. The immigration debate today was the last issue they talked about and they didn’t even have time to talk about it. This is not okay.”
RAICES advocates for a complete moratorium on both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and deportations, and believes the United States-Mexico border should be open and “demilitarized.” They’re one of the few organizations, though, that are as dedicated to attacking the Obama Administration, which deported more than 3 million people, 1.7 million of whom had no criminal record other than immigration violations, over these issues as they are the Trump Administration which has, so far, deported fewer than one million.
Biden tried to defray the criticism in an interview with Univision late last year, calling the Obama Administration’s focus on deportations a “big mistake.”
“The point is there were too many,” Biden said. “I saw the pain in the eyes of so many people who saw their families being deported. I know what it’s like to lose family members. It was painful.”