Republican presidential candidate Texas Sen. Ted Cruz addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 4. During a trip to the Bronx this week, he was greeted by hecklers angry over his position on immigration. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI |
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NEW YORK, April 7 (UPI) -- Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz got the Bronx cheer after a visit to the New York City borough on Tuesday, where he was heckled by protesters and forced to cancel a trip to a charter school when the students threatened to walk out over his immigration policies.
Several individuals heckled Texas Sen. Ted Cruz outside a Dominican restaurant in the Bronx, with one woman shouting repeatedly "this is an immigrant community" and bluntly telling him "get out of the Bronx!"
Two other men interrupted a media event inside the restaurant, scolding Cruz for his hard line on immigration, reminding Cruz he was standing "in the South Bronx, the poorest congressional district in the country."
After that, things did not get much better for Cruz. He had been scheduled to speak to students at Bronx Lighthouse College Preparatory Academy. That is, until a group of students wrote their principal a letter, saying they would stage a walkout because they are opposed to his position on illegal immigration. The passionate letter led the principal to reconsider Cruz's visit.
In the letter, the students call Cruz, "misogynistic, homophobic and racist."
"A group of students will be leaving during 4th period, as [an] act of civil disobedience in regards to the arrival of Ted Cruz to BLCPA," the letter reads. "We have all considered the consequences of our actions and are willing to accept them. We respect you and all the staff at BLCPA, as well as the expected guests. But we want you to understand that as passionate students, we have ideas and principles that should be heard and respected ... The presence of Ted Cruz and the ideas he stands for are offensive. His views are against ours and are actively working to harm us, our community, and the people we love."
The letter, reprinted in the New York Daily News, struck a chord with school officials who then asked Cruz not to come.
"Your points are eloquently argued — in fact, so eloquently argued that upon reading your email, Khori Whittaker, the CEO of Lighthouse Academies has agreed to cancel the visit," principal Alix Duggins replied.
The front page of the following day's Daily News summed up Cruz's day in the Bronx in typical New York tabloid fashion, with a photo of Cruz and his wife walking down the street looking lost and a bit bewildered. The headline: "Honey, how do we get out of the Bronx? Take the FU train, Ted!"
