Amid an ongoing partial government shutdown over funding for President Trump’s border wall, video of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has resurfaced of him giving a speech in 2009 on how “illegal immigration is wrong” and how barriers like fencing have made the border “far more secure.”
“The American people are fundamentally pro-legal immigration and anti-illegal immigration,” Schumer said in remarks at Georgetown Law. “Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple.”
“When we use phrases like undocumented workers, we convey a message to the American people that their government is not serious about combating illegal immigration, which the American people overwhelmingly oppose,” he went on. “I think it is illegal and wrong, and we have to change it.”
He even went so “far” as to argue that “illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who entered the U.S. legally."
Schumer added that, “Above all else, the American people want their government to be serious about protecting the public, enforcing the rule of law, and creating a rational system of legal immigration that will proactively fit our needs rather than reactively responding to future waves of illegal immigration. Any immigration solution must recognize that we must do as much as we can to gain control of our borders as soon as possible.”
Here’s the kicker: Sen. Schumer made the admission that the border is “far more secure” thanks to thousands of new border agents added from 2005 to 2009 as well as 630 miles of border fence constructed along the U.S. southern border which he said created “a significant barrier to illegal immigration.”
His remarks aren’t the only ones getting shared.
President Trump trolled former President Obama’s prior remarks on illegal immigration on Twitter Thursday night, retweeting:
In a later tweet, he blamed Democrats for the partial government shutdown, saying, “This isn’t about the Wall, everybody knows that a Wall will work perfectly (In Israel the Wall works 99.9%). This is only about the Dems not letting Donald Trump & the Republicans have a win. They may have the 10 Senate votes, but we have the issue, Border Security. 2020!”
Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has said that the wall will not be built or funded. The shutdown is expected to go into next week (and next year).
H/T Ryan Saavedra