Congressman Jose Luis “Lou” Correa shut down a town hall on immigration in Santa Ana, California, when residents opposed to illegal immigration turned out and began asking questions.
The Democratic lawmaker, elected to Congress in November, has held seven town halls since taking office in January, The Los Angeles Times reported, all focused on immigration and explaining immigrants’ rights.
Correa has been a vocal defender of Santa Ana’s Sanctuary City status and has vowed to fight President Trump’s attempts to halt funding to cities that refuse to uphold federal immigration laws.
Correa said the town halls are to “let people know how to follow the law, let them know their legal rights and responsibilities,” according to the Times.
The irony being that if those in the U.S. illegally followed the law, they would not be here to attend his town hall.
But Tuesday’s town hall was different in that people who appear to be supporters of President Donald Trump showed up — as expected, all hell broke loose.
Things got contentious even before the meeting even began, with two women getting into an altercation outside and being barred by police from attending, The Times reported.
The altercations continued inside before the town hall began, with police being forced to intervene, as seen in a video from a Trump supporter.
“Santa Ana is a sanctuary city and we are here today because their new congressman, Lou Correa, is holding a “Know Your Rights” immigrant workshop,” the person filming explained. “In other words, illegal aliens are going to be taught how circumvent U.S. authorities.”
The video is more than 15 minutes long, and early on a woman is seen complaining that Correa had invited a representative from the Mexican Consulate to attend to help answer questions.
It only went south from there, with Correa eventually shutting the meeting down
“Are you guys going to cooperate, or am I going to have to ask you to leave?” he said at one point, as some yelled “Americans first” and “Illegals have no rights.”
Congressman Lou Correa, who is protecting illegal criminals, gets escorted out as Town Hall gets shit down by Trump supporters. #TownHall pic.twitter.com/k1cdqcrJOU
— The Red Elephants (@RealRedElephant) May 31, 2017
After the meeting ended, angry confrontations broke out in the parking lot, with a man being arrested for striking a Trump supporter in the head with a pole bearing an anti-fascism flag, Santa Ana Police Department spokesman Anthony Bertagna said.
The contentious exchanges continued with police looking on, with Trump supporters chanted “USA! USA!” as anti-Trump protesters got in their faces.
…and it was all captured on video:
*Caution: Strong Language:
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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