Dobbs falsely claimed Pelosi said “immigration law enforcement is, quote-unquote, ‘un-American”
On the March 23 broadcast of his syndicated radio show, Lou Dobbs asked Center for Immigration Studies senior research fellow Jerry Kramer for his “reaction” to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “saying last week that enforcement in the workplace, immigration law enforcement is, quote unquote, ‘un-American.’ ” In fact, Pelosi did not say that “immigration law enforcement” in general is “un-American.” Rather, during a March 7 speech Pelosi gave as part of the national Family Unity tour led by leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Pelosi criticized as “un-American” immigration raids that separate undocumented parents from their documented children.
From Pelosi’s speech (full video available here and here):
PELOSI: That optimism, that hope, that courage, that determination of immigrants, of your families, when you arrived here, made America more American. You brought with you your tradition of family values, of faith, of community, of responsibility. How then could America say it’s OK to send parents of children away? What value system is that? I think it’s un-American. I think it’s un-American. I want to join [Rep.] Luis Gutierrez [D-IL] in saluting the families for their courage, for their generosity in spirit — of spirit, to share their stories; Ivan and Guadalupe and Yvette for sharing their story about their families. Because no politician’s speeches could ever be as eloquent as their personal testimony about what their family has experienced.
Who in our country — who in our country could not be moved by their stories? Who in our country would not want to change a policy of kicking in doors in the middle of the night and sending a parent away from their families? It must be stopped. It must be stopped.
From the March 23 edition of United Stations Radio Networks’ The Lou Dobbs Show:
DOBBS: Every way in which we have more empirical evidence of what is happening and the consequences of public policy choices that we’re making — or in the case of illegal immigration, as often as not, the public policy choice is to avoid the choice and to avoid enforcement of our laws. Just very quickly — your reaction to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week saying enforcement in the workplace, immigration law enforcement is, quote-unquote, “un-American.”
KAMMER: It makes you wonder if Mrs. Pelosi thinks there will ever be an immigration policy or immigration law that’s worth enforcing. It makes me think of Barbara Jordan, someone I think is one of the great Americans of the past hundred years, who ran a special congressional commission on immigration.
Mrs. Jordan died in 1996, but two years earlier, when she submitted her report to Congress, she said that if we’re gonna have an immigration policy that’s coherent, that means something, that’s good for the country, we have to be able to set rules and establish criteria. And that those who don’t meet those rules and don’t fit those criteria will not be allowed to come. And if they insist on coming illegally, she said, they’re gonna have to go home. Barbara Jordan said we have to be able to say no to people who violate our immigration policy. She said that’s a policy in the national interest; apparently, Speaker Pelosi, you know, doesn’t agree with that at all.
DOBBS: Right. And being joined today by Archbishop George — Cardinal [Francis] George suggesting further relaxation of enforcement. I don’t know how you could relax our enforcement much more of immigration laws in this country.
