Watch Obama Get Heckled By Deportation Protester During President's Immigration Reform Speech [VIDEO]

After protesters interrupted President Barack Obama during a speech in San Francisco on Monday afternoon, Obama responded directly to one protester's assertion that the president had the power "to stop deportations for all undocumented families," telling the young man, "Actually, I don't. And that's why we're here." As chants of "stop deportations" broke out from several people in the room, the president instructed security guards not to pull the protesters out of the room. "I respect the passion of these young people because they feel deeply about the concerns of their families," he said. Scroll to the bottom of the page to check out a video of the interaction.

"Now, what you need to know, when I'm speaking as president of the United States, and I come to this community, is that, in fact, if I could solve all these problems without passing laws in Congress, then I would do so," Obama said. "But we're also a nation of laws. That's part of our tradition. And so the easy way out is to try to yell and pretend like I can do something by violating our laws. What I'm proposing is the harder path, which is to use our democratic processes to achieve the same goal that you want to achieve, but it won't be as easy as just shouting. It requires us lobbying and getting it done."

Will Tran, an anchor with a Bay Area news channel, wrote on Twitter that the heckler who interrupted the president is Ju Hong, a young immigrant who says he can't visit his family in Korea because of the United States' laws on immigration. According to Tran, Hong told reporters after the speech that he hadn't planned on protesting when he came to see Obama speak, but did so after becoming increasingly sick of what he was hearing during the speech.

The president is on the West Coast to help raise funds for House and Senate Democrats and talk immigration. The San Francisco Gate reports that dozens of protestors had gathered around the recreation center, which is located in Chinatown, by the time Obama's plane landed this morning en route from Seattle. He was also received by California Senator Dianne Feinstein, long a loyal ally of the Obama administration in Congress. NBC Bay Area writes that upon his arrival to the recreation center, he told the crowd that "The only thing standing in our way" in passing immigration reform "is the unwillingness of certain Republicans in Congress."

"So for those of you who are committed to getting this done, I am going to march with you and fight with you every step of the way," Obama said at the closing of his speech. "It is going to require work, it is not simply a matter of us just saying we're going to violate the law. That's not our tradition."

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