Racial tensions flared Thursday in Arizona when Hispanic protesters targeting first lady Melania Trump’s visit to a facility holding immigrant children shouted down a black woman who asked them to leave her porch.
A video uploaded to Facebook by the protest group, Puente Human Rights Movement, shows the woman asking the group to leave and a protester shouting, “You’re illegal too, you’re from Africa,” and, “Put on some rap music, maybe it will be OK.”
The video was shot near where Trump was visiting on her second trip to show support for immigrant children and the president’s policies.
The video shows the protest then, near the end, as two groups hold signs and chant on the second floor of an apartment complex, the verbal clash begins:
Black woman: Excuse me, can you not be on my porch?
Group with two anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement signs moves 5-10 feet away but stays on porch.
Woman: I am not happy.
Camera holder: Neither are we, ma’am. We’re not happy either. We want our children reunited with their parents. That’s all we want.
Woman: Don’t care, don’t care. I just want you people not on my property, that’s what I want. I want you people not yelling at my door. That’s what I want.
Some comment is made about the first lady at the immigration child care center.
Woman: I know she’s here, good for her. I see these kids over here playing every day, they’re taken care of. You people come over here and want to say, whatever. Their parents should not be being illegal. Their parents have committed a crime.
Camera holder: You’re illegal too. You’re from Africa. You’re from that country. Your roots come from there. Your roots come from Africa. You’re an immigrant too.
Woman: The United States of America.
Camera holder: Exactly. I’m a United States citizen.
Group starts chanting again as the woman asks for them to quiet down.
Camera holder: Put on some rap music, maybe it will be OK.
After some more back and forth, the camera holder said, “I’m standing up for what I believe, that’s all there is to it, right or wrong.” Then another woman who is part of his group said, “There is no reason to be anti-black.”
Camera holder: I’m not, she was anti-Mexican.
