Trump Demands Answers on Immigration: 'We Have the Worst Laws in the History of Any Country'
During a rally in South Dakota on Friday, President Donald Trump went off on immigration in a major way, telling the audience that “we have the worst laws in the history of any country” when it comes to who’s allowed inside the border.
With the midterms rapidly approaching, Trump was stumping to try to shore up his support in the Upper Midwest by boosting the Republican candidate for governor of South Dakota, U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem.
However, immigration was a major part of the rally, particularly when it came to the Democrats far from South Dakota who Trump said are promoting open borders. While he didn’t mention him by name, Trump talked about California gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom and his apparent dislike of border control, noting that loose borders combined with Newsom’s support for single-payer health care could create a crisis in the state.
“What happens, I said, if the entire world decides to go to California because they get free health care, free medical care and free education,” Trump said. “California has just increased in size to 500 million people. I may even move to California to get free health care!”
As Trump described the liberal immigration position, the crowd began chanting, “Build the wall!”
Trump then launched into a tirade about the country’s immigration laws.
“We have the worst laws in the history of any country,” Trump said.
“We have laws, catch and release, you catch them and then you release them and you tell them ‘come back to court. Let’s see, we can get you a hearing in three years, please be back in three years.’ And they don’t understand what you’re saying because they don’t speak the language.
“Many of them are greeted by lawyers at the border. You know that, right? You have lawyers standing at the border saying, ‘repeat after me, read this statement: I have been abused, I need safety, it is for my personal health.’
“‘Oh, okay, congratulations! You’ve just become a citizen of the United States of America.’”
Check out the speech here. The “worst laws in the history of any country” line comes about the 7-minute mark.
You can see that this is one Trump speech that’s going to be discussed a lot in the media over the next few days.
However, say what you will about the content, it’s certainly a dramatization of what the problem is that we’re dealing with:
The Democrats don’t believe immigration law ought to be enforced because the Democrats benefit electorally when immigration law isn’t enforced.
The reason they don’t want the wall isn’t because it’s a waste of money. The reason is that they’re afraid it will work.
They don’t want “catch and release” because it’s the humane thing to do. It’s because they want that individual to stay within the United States illegally.
I don’t know if those are the worst laws in the history of any country. I think that was probably a bit of off-the-cuff hyperbole.
As reasons for wanting certain laws — and wanting others enforced certain ways — I think you’d have a difficult time finding worse ones than Democrats have for their stance on immigration.
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