Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised eyebrows on Monday with a series of comments that she made about enforcing U.S. immigration laws.
Speaking at an event in Elmhurst, New York, Pelosi attacked President Donald Trump over the raids from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers that were scheduled to happen over the weekend but were delayed after sensitive information was leaked to the public about the locations of the raids.
“When I saw that the president was going to have these raids, I mean it was so appalling,” Pelosi said. “It’s outside the circle of civilized human behavior to just be kicking down doors, splitting up families, and the rest of that, in addition to the injustices that are happening at the border. We have legislation to go forward to address those needs, but in terms of interior enforcement, what’s the – what’s the point?”
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Pelosi also claims that she told Trump that illegal aliens breaking federal immigration law “is not a reason for deportation.”
“I said ‘a violation of status is not a reason for deportation,’ that’s just not so,” Pelosi said. “If you have some case you want to make about somebody who’s been accused … that has nothing to do with violation of status because then we’re talking about over 10 million people who may be subjected to this treatment, and what we need there is comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship.”
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Pelosi’s remarks closely mirror remarks made by socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is currently a Democratic presidential candidate, who said on Sunday that it was “not appropriate” to deport illegal aliens that have broken the law.
“There are ICE raids set to start Sunday morning. Estimates of some 2000 people or so who will be targeted, is this appropriate?” moderator Margaret Brennan asked Sanders.
“No, it’s not,” Sanders responded. “It is absolutely not appropriate.”
Brennan again pressed Sanders: “But specifically on this point, the two thousand that are supposed to be targeted haven’t shown up for a court date so essentially they’re- they’re not following the asylum process. The legal standards when they’re here. So should they be prosecuted, should they be deported?”
Sanders responded: “I don’t- I don’t like this deportation thing at all and I think Trump uses this as a beginning to do worse things to come.”