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Watch Pelosi get shouted down by young immigrants at Dream Act event

U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tries to talk as protesters demonstrate during a press conference on the DREAM Act on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif.
(Lea Suzuki /San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
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An event with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, in her own Congressional district on Monday started as an attempt to voice support for the Dream Act and ended with her being overpowered by protesters and ultimately leaving in frustration.

Dozens of young people who chanted they were “immigrant youth, undocumented and unafraid” silenced Pelosi, who was in San Francisco with fellow California Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee and Jared Huffman speaking at College Track, a program to expand college access.

Pelosi was there advocating for the passage of the Dream Act, which would grant legal status to unauthorized immigrants who came to the United States as children among other protections.

Protesters yell as U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., not shown, tries to speak during a press conference on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA program, on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017 in San Francisco. (Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

The Dream Act — which has taken many forms over the years but never been successful in Congress — has been Pelosi’s and other House Democrats’ answer to the Trump administration saying it wants to rescind the Obama’s administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. He told Congress it has six months to fix or replace the program through legislation.

RELATED | Rep. Scott Peters: Now Congress must act to protect dreamers

Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, have been working with Trump to try to compromise on DACA, with border security being a priority for Trump, and one of the reasons protesters showed up at Pelosi’s event on Monday.

The protesters urged Pelosi to “demand a clean bill” that doesn’t compromise with Trump and “shut down ICE,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They also held signs calling for her to “fight for all 11 million,” not just those unauthorized immigrants who meet the standards for the DACA program.

“All of us, or none of us,” they chanted.

Pelosi tried without success to respond to their demands to fight deportation but was called “a liar.”

Pelosi eventually left the scene as the yelling continued.

“This group today is saying don’t do the DREAM Act unless you do comprehensive immigration reform,” Pelosi told reporters afterward. “Well we all want to do comprehensive immigration reform. ... I understand their frustration — I’m excited by it as a matter of fact — but the fact is, they’re completely wrong.”

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin

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