Once upon a time, more than two decades ago, then-President Bill Clinton used a State of the Union address to slam the number of illegal aliens who’d been allowed to stay in the United States – sounding an awfully lot like now-President Donald Trump, who’s been called racist, bigoted and anti-American for daring to say the same thing.
Back in 1995, Clinton (whose wife was recently held up as a pro-amnesty champion by liberal anti-Trumpers) expressed very plainly:
“We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years and we must do more to stop it.”
Clinton added that the U.S. should concentrate more heavily on deporting criminal aliens who pose a threat to Americans (also a sentiment expressed by Trump), complained that illegal aliens are taking jobs away from unemployed Americans and legal immigrants (again, also a major cornerstone of Trump’s campaign), pushed the need for more border security and called for double the number of deportations. His remarks were then met with a standing ovation from Congress.
Cue the liberal outrage? We doubt it.
It is true that Clinton deported high numbers of illegal immigrants during his eight years in office, ultimately sending more than 12 million unlawfully present people home. Clinton deported more people, in fact, than President Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush, both Republicans. By comparison, President Obama deported fewer illegal aliens per year than any president since Richard Nixon.
Here’s the clip of Clinton from 22 years ago: