News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Sat. May. 3, 2014: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden today chowed down on some real Jamaican food after delivering a commencement address at Miami Dade College, Kendall campus.
VP Biden headed out to a shopping mall in west Kendall in Miami to the Island Restaurant, a Jamaican café, where he enjoyed a sampling plate of curry chicken, jerk chicken, rice and peas, steamed veggies and ripe plantains.
Biden dined with Caribbean American community leaders in South Florida including Jamaicans: Don Daly of CRI Communications; Jessica Cameron of the Miami Dade College North Campus and president of the Tropical Beat Caribbean Students Association and attorney Marlon Hill; Haitians: Dorette Darby, a business owner and member of Kendall Community Church of God; retired business owners Jacques & Yvette Laroche and Dr. Marie Lindor Latortue, a social services administrator and retired Trinidad & Tobago-born teacher Jerry Nagee.
The traveling press corps was encouraged to try the Jamaican beef patties.
After an hour lunch, the Vice President posed for pictures with the restaurant staff and patrons.
Biden also took the time to discuss his feelings about immigration reform with his lunch partners, noting that the importance of immigration reform is to take 11 million undocumented immigrants out of the shadows so that they can realize their American dream.
Biden’s speech was earlier interrupted at the commencement ceremony by a woman in the crowd screaming: “Stop deportations!” The vice president’s response came in familiar nonchalant fashion: “We’ll do that, too, kid, but let me finish my speech.”
Biden emphasized the importance of immigrants to the future success of the country, telling the audience that “a lack of reverence for the unorthodox” and a “constant stream of new immigrants” has served the nation well in the past.
“And that’s why we have to act to take 11 million people out of the shadows,” Biden said, amid loud approval from the crowd.
