Immigration lawyers and activists supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants protested a recent appearance by Cecilia Muñoz, the Obama administration’s director of the domestic policy council.
The activists believed Muñoz supported the administration’s deportation policies, reported the Latin Post on Saturday.
The Annual Conference on Immigration Law hosted by the American Immigration Lawyers Association had scheduled Muñoz as their keynote speaker. But amnesty advocates protested Muñoz’s invitation and penned an open letter to AILA demanding that the group to rescind the invitation.
She continued to defend the administration’s policy in spite of the protests, reported Law360.
“I recognize that I’m asking a hard thing. Nobody on the pro-immigrant side of the debate wants to be the one to say, here’s who you should remove from the country, and here’s how you should do it, or here’s who you should detain. Here’s what a vigorous enforcement strategy that’s also humane should look like. But by ceding this territory your movement is handing it to some people in Congress who really don’t share your values. And they can sell their perspective to the American public pretty effectively,” Muñoz said.
Throughout her speech, amnesty proponents silently held up banners protesting the administration’s policies.
