President Barack Obama took on a group of hecklers during his speech on immigration in Chicago Tuesday.
Obama was in Chicago to discuss his executive action on immigration during a planned visit to the Copernicus Community Center, but in the middle of his speech, he was disrupted by several hecklers.
Three protesters seated in various parts of the auditorium began shouting and criticizing Obama’s deportation policy, saying more than just criminals were being deported.
“You have been deporting families,” one heckler said.
Obama listened for some time then asked them to stop yelling, saying "nobody's removing you, I've heard you, but you've got to listen to me too."
Obama said the group was "absolutely right" and acknowledged that there have been a significant number of deportations.
"But what you're not paying attention to is the fact that I just took an action to change the law, so that's point No. 1," Obama said. "Point No. 2, the way the change in the law works is that we're reprioritizing how we enforce our immigration law generally. The point is that though I understand why you might have yelled at me a month ago, although I disagree with some of your characterizations, it doesn't make much sense to yell at me right now when we're making changes.”
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The audience of roughly 1,800 people applauded the President’s remarks.
"But the point is, let's make sure that you get the facts and that you know exactly what we're doing," Obama said.
He noted if they still disagree with parts of his immigration policy, they can turn to the immigration advocacy groups the administration has worked with on the issue.
It did not appear that any of the hecklers were removed during the speech.
