Ann Coulter to bring 'Adios, America!' talk to Berkeley

Ann Coulter is scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley on Nov. 20. Ann Coulter is scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley on Nov. 20. Photo: Michael Tran, FilmMagic Photo: Michael Tran, FilmMagic Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Ann Coulter to bring 'Adios, America!' talk to Berkeley 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Two years after a planned visit to UC Berkeley was canceled due to security concerns, Ann Coulter is set to speak on campus Wednesday night.

As of 5 p.m., UCPD and Berkeley Police were maintaining a heavy presence around campus; in 2017, a planned appearance by far-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos was met by protests that caused over $100,000 in damage.

The right-wing pundit is being hosted by the Berkeley College Republicans on Nov. 20 for a talk called "Adios, America!" The event description says Coulter will be "speaking about the current United States immigration system and the dangers of mass immigration."

Coulter regularly speaks out against non-white immigration to the United States and in 2018 called immigrant children separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border "child actors weeping and crying."

"One may assume the new majority will not be such compassionate overlords as the white majority has been," she wrote in 2007. "If this sort of drastic change were legally imposed on any group other than white Americans, it would be called genocide. Yet whites are called racists merely for mentioning the fact that current immigration law is intentionally designed to reduce their percentage in the population."

In 2017, Coulter was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley, but the conservative group partially funding the talk pulled its support due to concerns there would be inadequate security to handle protestors. Coulter called the school "a radical thuggish institution" and accused the administration of suppressing "the cherished American right to free speech."

At the time, campus spokesman Dan Mogulof said the school had already paid for event security and was prepared to staff Coulter's talk, despite her insinuations that the school had canceled on her.

Tonight's event is scheduled to take place in the Wheeler Hall Auditorium at 9 p.m. Tickets range from $15 for Cal students to $75 for "premium" seats.

Katie Dowd is an SFGATE Senior Digital Editor. Contact: katie.dowd@sfgate.com | Twitter: @katiedowd