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Warren No Longer Speaking at Immigration Conference With Controversial Women's March Leader

Linda Sarsour (left) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (right) / Twitter
December 10, 2018

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), who was initially scheduled to speak at the same conference as controversial Women's March organizer and liberal activist Linda Sarsour, is no longer speaking at the conference due to a scheduling conflict.

Warren had been slated to speak at the National Immigrant Integration Conference, which began on Sunday and runs through Tuesday in Arlington, Virginia, the Washington Free Beacon recently reported. However, the senator's picture and biography have now been scrubbed from the conference website.

NIIC is the largest immigration conference in the United States and "plays a central role in the powerful, diverse and broad immigrant and refugee rights and integration field," according to its website.

"At the NIIC, the many different spokes of this field gather to develop relationships, build campaigns, amplify shared values, be inspired, build relationships, and share ideas, strategies, lessons learned and new information and innovations," the website says. "It is an important space for leaders and organizations, and strengthens collaborations and partnerships that power work at the local, regional and national level."

Warren's office did not respond to a request for comment. However, the conference's communications strategist, Susana Flores, told the Free Beacon by phone that Warren had canceled her appearance due to a "scheduling conflict." It is unclear what that conflict is.

Sarsour, a Palestinian-American, has a long history of anti-Israel rhetoric, including a speech in 2015 at a Nation Of Islam event. She has also discounted anti-Semitism, saying that "while anti-Semitism is something that impacts Jewish Americans, it's different than anti-black racism or Islamophobia because it's not systemic."

At an event hosted by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Justice Delegation in June, Sarsour said that "Palestine is the global social justice cause of our generation" and that there is an "apartheid happening in Palestine, funded by our taxpayers' money." At the same event, she pushed back against people who call her anti-Semitic, saying, "When you hear people calling me an anti-Semite, or saying that the CCR [Center for Constitutional Rights] is an anti-Semitic organization, you have to stand up and say no! Because actually it's a disservice to Jews to call people like us anti-Semites when there are true anti-Semites in the White House!"

The NIIC conference would not have been the first time that Warren, who has been floated as a potential 2020 presidential candidate, attended an event with Sarsour. In October, Warren attended a rally protesting Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation alongside Sarsour and Tamika Mallory, co-chair of the Women's March.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) and Democratic Reps. Luis Gutiérrez (Ill.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Don Beyer (Va.), and Grace Meng (N.Y.) are scheduled to speak at the NIIC conference. Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) is also on the schedule.