After pro-amnesty hecklers disrupted Vice President Joe Biden’s Thursday Netroots Nation speech by chanting “stop deporting our families,” Biden said he agreed and urged the audience to applaud them.
“I respect your view, and I share your view,” Biden said before himself clapping.
Though the Obama administration has publicly stated that many of the illegal immigrant children flooding across the border should be deported, Obama also told a pro-amnesty heckler during a recent speech in Austin, Texas, “I’m on your side, man!”
Biden, who is considering a 2016 presidential run and actively courting the liberal base, even urged audience members to “clap for those young people.”
“Can you imagine the pain, the anxiety, coming home every day wondering whether or not your mother or father will still be there?” Biden asked. “What it must feel like?”
Two national polls this week found that a majority of Americans want illegal immigrant children from Central America to be deported as quickly as possible. The White House has also said that some deportations need to be expedited while children who can qualify for asylum are allowed to.
Under a 2008 law, illegal immigrant children from countries other than Mexico cannot be deported immediately. Though Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) have sponsored legislation that would change that 2008 law to make it easier to deport illegal immigrant children from Central America, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus indicated they would not vote to give Obama $3.7 billion in funds to deal with the border crisis if the 2008 law is changed.