House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., invoked former President Ronald Reagan to criticize two immigration bills the GOP was set to vote on Thursday.
Pelosi cited a speech Reagan delivered on Jan. 19, 1989, one day before he was set to step down from office.
“Yes, the torch of Lady Liberty symbolizes our freedom and represents our heritage, the compact with our parents, our grandparents, and our ancestors,” Pelosi said, quoting Reagan on the House floor. “It is that lady who gives us our great and special place in the world.”
“‘For it’s the great life force of each generation of new Americans,’ of new Americans, he said, ‘that guarantees that America’s triumph shall continue unsurpassed into the next century and beyond,” she added.
Pelosi didn’t quote Reagan’s next line, but he said the U.S. leads the world because “we draw our people, our strength, from every country and every corner of the world.”
Democrats have railed against President Trump’s policy of tough border enforcement, and have said it has led to the “cruel” treatment of immigrant families, some of whom have been separated as the adults are prosecuted for illegal entry.
The Trump administration has said said it’s only enforcing border laws that went unenforced under President Barack Obama. While the Trump administration is not looking to shut down legal immigration, it has suggested reducing legal immigration by about half from current levels.
Pelosi said the two Republican bills that could get votes today would harm immigrants, and are aimed at helping Trump build his “obscene” border wall.
“Today, we are considering … two Republican bills that insult our nation’s values and tarnish our heritage, as the president said, as a beacon of hope and opportunity,” she said.
