SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ Almost two dozen protesters interrupted an otherwise low-key appearance by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in Sacramento on Wednesday, accusing the California Republican of not doing enough to keep immigrant families from being separated.
"McCarthy, where's your heart?" protesters chanted as they unfurled small banners that said "No justice, no peace" at the event sponsored by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.
The demonstration was part of a series of protests and rallies held Wednesday that targeted the homes and district offices of California House Republicans for what immigrant rights organizers called their complicity in the Trump administration's rigid immigration policies and separation of migrant families. The protesters briefly stopped the event before leaving the room. McCarthy sat quietly on stage during the interruption.
The protests continued outside the event with members of the California Dream Network leading more than 20 people in chants.
"McCarthy has the power to make DACA the topic of conversation for Congress," student Jorge Quintana said of the work permit program for young immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children, formally known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. "He has the power to do it, so why is he not doing it?"
Before he was interrupted by protesters, McCarthy sharply criticized Democrats in Congress for failing to negotiate an immigration reform plan.
"They just want to hunker down" and wait for the November election, he said. "If we had partners on the other side, it would be done."
The House voted down two Republican immigration bills in June amid battles between moderate and conservative factions of the party, in what was considered an embarrassing setback for GOP leaders.
McCarthy was not specifically asked about immigrant families separated after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. He repeated some of the points raised this year by President Donald Trump about alleged crime sprees committed by the street gang MS-13, and he praised U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as having "saved kids" who had come to the country illegally.
One of the president's most vocal supporters in the House, McCarthy lamented the tone and tenor of current political discourse after the protesters left the room.
"Why can't we sit down and communicate with one another?" he asked.
