In his final address before the United Nations Tuesday, President Obama took a very public pot shot at American conservatives over the issue of immigration, accusing the “far right” of fearing “outside contamination” by immigrants and rejecting the “common humanity” of the global populace.
Of course, nowhere in his speech did the president make a distinction between legal immigration (which many on the “far right” favor) and illegal immigration (which they almost universally oppose), nor did he give a verbal nod to the legitimate concern of migration from countries wrought with Islamic radicalization.
Instead, the president smeared American conservatives as nothing more than bigoted xenophobes, explaining:
…aggressive nationalism, a crude populism, sometimes from the far left but more often from the far right, which seeks to restore what they believe was a better, simpler age free of outside contamination. We cannot dismiss these visions. They are powerful. They reflect dissatisfaction among too many of our citizens.
I do not believe those visions can deliver security or prosperity over the long term. But I do believe that these visions fail to recognize at a very basic level our common humanity. Moreover I believe that the acceleration of travel and technology and telecommunications, together with a global economy that depends on a global supply chain, makes it self-defeating ultimately for those who seek to reverse this progress.
Today, a nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself.
Later in his speech, Obama again took aim at those who disagree with his immigration policies and the recent lax immigration allowances in Europe, dismissing their concerns over mass immigration and potential terrorist threats as a simple hatred of anyone who “looks different.”
Check out Obama’s remarks below: