democratic debates

Debate Protesters Interrupt Biden: ‘We Are DACA Recipients. Our Lives Are at Risk.’

Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Just before Joe Biden answered moderator George Stephanopoulos’s question on recovering from professional setbacks with a deeply personal story about losing his wife and daughter in a car crash, the former vice-president was interrupted by protesters shouting: “We are DACA recipients. Our lives are at risk.” The phrase, more elaborate than most short-syllable protest chants, was difficult to hear on television, and refers to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that is being threatened by the Trump administration.

Two of the protestors were wearing T-shirts with “Defend DACA, Abolish Ice, Citizenship for All” across the chest, and were escorted from the room at Texas Southern University.

At the last debate in July, protesters interrupted Cory Booker, demanding that New York City officials “Fire Pantaleo,” referring to the police officer who killed Eric Garner in 2014. (Less than a month later, Daniel Pantaleo was removed from the police force and stripped of his pension benefits.) Later in that debate, protesters from Movimiento Cosecha, a group calling for the end to all deportations, interrupted Joe Biden as he delivered remarks on the migrant crisis.

Debate Protesters Want DACA Action: ‘Our Lives Are at Risk’