Donald Trump Uses 2005 Obama Video To Support Immigration Policies
President Donald Trump has turned to a remark made by his predecessor Barack Obama more than a decade ago to find support for his immigration policies.
In a tweet posted on Tuesday, Trump shared a 2005 video of Obama talking about stopping illegal migration.
In the clip, the then Illinois senator said that those who enter the United States illegally, along with those who employ these people, disrespect the rule of law and show disregard for those who follow the law.
“We simply cannot allow people to pour into the U.S. undetected, undocumented, unchecked and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants in this country,” Obama said in the video clip.
Above the shared clip, Trump stated that he completely agrees with the former president.
“I agree with President Obama 100%,” Trump wrote.
According to RT News, Obama’s remarks were part of a campaign to push for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA), which was proposed by Senator Arlen Specter and backed by Senators John McCain, Ted Kennedy, and Lindsey Graham.
The objective of the bill was to fortify the security of the U.S.-Mexican border while granting longterm illegal immigrants legal status and raising the number of guest workers through a “blue card” visa program.
CIRA, however, never became a law due to the differences in the versions of the House and the Senate.
Trump’s reference to Obama’s remarks on immigration issues came as the current administration mulls on what to do with a caravan of thousands of people from Central America marching to the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to Fox News, the march started with just a small number of individuals who decided to band together in Honduras so they can be protected from gangs preying on migrants who travel alone. The group snowballed as it moved north and is now consist of thousands of people.
The caravan of migrants, which is currently moving through Mexico, has reportedly swelled from just about 160 to more than 14,000 as many Mexicans joined.
Trump has vowed not to let the caravan cross the U.S. border, even threatening that he would use the force of the U.S. military if needed. He also threatened to cut U.S. aid to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
“Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S.,” Trump posted on Twitter. “We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them.”