Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) was one of five Democratic Senators to vote against the DREAM Act back in December of 2010. She did vote for the Senate immigration bill last year. But, last month, she sided the anti-immigrant crowd again, voting to block executive action and undermine DACA. She’s also engaged in one of the most competitive Senate races this year.
At a campaign event over the weekend, several activists from the North Carolina DREAM Team delivered a message to the Senator – by joining her on stage. The title of Adrian Carrasquillo’s article at Buzzfeed described the interaction as “super awkward.” Video is below:
Immigration activists upset with Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan’s record on deportations got onstage and protested the senator’s event Sunday afternoon just feet away from her.
The confrontation came just a day after a similar action by activists at an event headlined by Hillary Clinton and Hagan. The North Carolina Democrat hasrepeatedly said she opposes President Obama’s plans to take executive action on immigration policy.
Viridiana Martinez, with the North Carolina DREAM Team, an organization of undocumented youth, was part of the group who showed up at the event and caused the disruption. She said before the event someone with the campaign asked to see their shirts and signs. Some activists were let in to the baseball field where the event was being held but those with the signs were not allowed in.
But once the event started, those outside the fence began chanting and interrupting Hagan. Eventually, the activists inside walked over, grabbed the signs, and went up on stage where aides halfheartedly tried to stop them.
Once Hagan realized the activists were up on stage with her she addressed them. “Oh y’all, we definitely support immigration reform. But you need to go talk to Thom Tillis,” she said, referencing her Republican opponent, before being interrupted. “Y’all I supported common sense bipartisan immigration reform.”
“We wanted to make clear she is not our friend,” Martinez told BuzzFeed News after the event Sunday. “She has a track record of being anti-immigrant,” she said, pointing to her vote against the DREAM Act and to end the president’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protected undocumented youth from deportation in 2012.
