Anti-’Amnesty’ Activists Shout Down Dem Rep. Gutiérrez with ‘USA!’ Chant During Spanish-Language Event

by Andrew Kirell | 3:22 pm, March 26th, 2015VIDEOS

Tensions ran high over the weekend when anti-”amnesty” activists showed up to a Spanish-language town hall event featuring Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) and proceeded to shout him down.

The event at the University of Southern California was billed as “Keeping Families Together: An Immigration Town Hall” featuring Gutiérrez and fellow Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), and was delivered in Spanish with the option for attendees to wear headphones for English translations. The event focused on President Barack Obama‘s recent executive action on immigration, and featured materials assisting undocumented immigrants with signing up deportation deferrals under the new policy.

Various anti-”amnesty” activist networks alerted members to the event in advance and coordinated a protest of sorts. Several YouTube videos show how that went down.

In one video, entitled in all-caps, “AMERICAN PATRIOTS SHOUT DOWN ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION PUSHING TRAITOR REP. LUIS GUTIERREZ,” the narrator expresses frustration with the Spanish-language format and having to submit questions via form — thus preventing “real questions” from being asked.

In that same video, when Rep. Gutiérrez enters the auditorium, the protestors immediately begin booing him. The front few rows, filled with supporters of the event, attempted to drown out the heckling with loud applause and chants of “Sí, se puede!” (English: “Yes, we can”).

That prompted the anti-”amnesty” activists to start loudly chanting “USA! USA! USA!” as the event’s moderator attempted to quiet down the crowd for roughly three minutes.

When she informed the audience that the event will be in Spanish (around 3:49 below), one attendee shouted: “We live in America! It should be in English!” which set off another wave of chants like “English! English! English!”

Eventually police officers arrived, with one approaching the stage to implore the crowd to allow the event to continue uninterrupted so that everyone could “have a chance to express themselves.”

Video shows that during Gutiérrez’s remarks, the protesters continued to heckle him with a smattering of real-time commentary, such as “Don’t play the race card!”

Watch that video below:

And when it came time for audience Q&A, another video with the blaring title “ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MEETING ENDS 20 MINUTES EARLY BECAUSE OF REAL QUESTIONS” shows Gutiérrez swiftly exiting the event while his co-panelists remained on stage. That set off another round of chants, resulting in the police officer returning to the stage. Watch below:

Right-wing websites like The Right Scoop and Gateway Pundit picked up on the videos and deemed them a triumph. “Like a crucifix to a vampire, the chants of ‘USA’ made Luis scowl and hiss, and eventually drove him away from the all-Spanish forum,” wrote the former; while the latter blog approvingly described the chanters as “American patriots.” Breitbart.com glossed over the commotion and called the protesters “immigration enforcement activists.”

One can’t help but wonder how these same websites would react if the speaker were, say, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), and the disruptors were immigration activists.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/anti-amne...anguage-event/