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UT Tyler students escorted out of Ted Cruz event

Two UT Tyler students were escorted from Senator Ted Cruz's re-election campaign event in Tyler Monday. They students say while they are Beto O'Rourke supporters they wanted to hear the Senator speak.

Tyler, TX — Two college students were escorted out of a re-election campaign event for Senator Ted Cruz.

It happened Monday at John Soules Foods. Belen Iniguez and Emily Penal were escorted out of the event and told they weren't allowed to be there despite having tickets.

Both women had been outside the event showing their support for Beto O'Rourke, the Senator's opponent; holding up signs. One of the girls was even wearing a "Dreamers" t-shirt in reference to the DACA "Dreamers".

CBS 19 was at the event and neither Iniguez nor Penal were creating a scene or drawing attention to themselves, we almost missed them calmly being escorted out before Cruz even made an appearance.

Speaking with the girls the day after the event they said originally they weren't planning on going to hear Senator Cruz speak because they weren't sure they would be welcome.

Deciding to go was a spur the moment decision after someone else offered them tickets.

"They gave us two free tickets and I was like, 'Okay,' there was two tickets and so..." Penal said.

Both girls are Political Science majors. They said even though they weren't originally planning on going, having the opportunity was important to them. They go to political events like this one on a regular basis.

"We wanted to talk to him (Cruz) once we were in there and you know, maybe even get a picture with Ted Cruz. He is our current Senator." Penal said.

Once inside, they say there were red flags.

"Two individuals approached us and asked if we were Beto supporters and we said, 'Well yes, but Ted Cruz is also our Senator.'" Iniguez said.

After that they say a woman approached asking if they had tickets.

"She asked if we had tickets for the event which was already strange because they take up your tickets whenever you walk in." Iniguez said.

Then... another person came up to them. He asked them if they were the ones outside with the Beto signs and they said yes.

Then they say he drew even more attention to them by pointing and saying, "These are Beto supporters. They're going to be obnoxious. They're going to interrupt." Iniguez said.

The two women say after all of that they were thinking about moving to the back of the room to not be a distraction but before they could they said John Soules security guards approached and told them to go outside.

"We figured we're going to go talk to them about what happened, they're going to understand us, and then they're going to tell us to come back in or just stay in the back." Penal said.

Once outside they were told to leave.

CBS 19 did reach out to Senator Cruz's campaign for a comment.

Our campaign gave permission to local law enforcement to remove any individuals who were disruptive. This situation occurred prior to Sen. Cruz's arrival but our understanding is that audience members complained that the individuals in question were being disruptive so they were removed, per protocol."

Both Iniguez and Penal feel it was due to their shirts. They say they were wearing them because it was a last minute decision to go inside and would have worn something different if they planned on going ahead of time.

At the end of the day they wanted to share their story because to them, this incident is about respecting others.

"Not everyone is going to agree with you. Even me and her (Iniguez) might not agree with each other, but at the end of the day it's about respecting each others views." Penal said.

They say all they wanted to do was hear Senator Cruz speak and if there was time, ask him a question or two.

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