'Undocumented Americans' are people 'we care about the most' in U.S., Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy says
Sen. Chris Murphy told MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Wednesday that "undocumented Americans" were the people they care about the most.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., was condemned by conservatives and immigration experts after he stated that illegal immigrants are the people "we care about most."
When MSNBC host Chris Hayes asked Murphy on Wednesday about the failed border security bill, the Connecticut senator said, rather than pushing for a path to citizenship in border legislation negotiations like the party has in the past, Democrats were advocating for Ukraine funding.
"Well, I mean, Chris, that’s been a failed play for 20 years. So you are right that that has been the Democratic strategy for 30 years, maybe, and it has failed to deliver for the people we care about most, the undocumented Americans that are in this country," Murphy said.
Murphy's comments went viral with many objecting to him using the term "undocumented Americans," claiming it's an oxymoron. Others suggested this was Murphy admitting the Democratic Party's honest view on the issue.
Murphy's comments went viral with many objecting to him using the term "undocumented Americans" because they claimed it's an oxymoron. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
SENATE RELEASES LONG-AWAITED BORDER LEGISLATION, MAJOR ASYLUM CHANGES
"This is what they call giving away the entire game," former Trump senior advisor and immigration hawk Stephen Miller said. "This is why Democrats angrily oppose every enforcement measure. This is why Democrats bitterly oppose detention and deportation. This is why Joe Biden and the Democrats eradicated the border and orchestrated the invasion."
"Points for clarity and honesty," conservative commentator Andrew Klavan said. "Points off for wicked anti-American dirtbaggery."
"Democrats want to ‘rescue’ ‘undocumented Americans,’" Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich wrote. "Ridiculous and exactly why Republicans refused to go along with their scheme."
"’Undocumented Americans,’" founder of New Discourses James Lindsay wrote. "Critical Immigration Theory, designed to sublate national citizenship and sovereignty, is coming."
"When Democrats tell you who they are, believe them," Townhall columnist Derek Hunter responded.
Center for Immigration Studies director of policy studies Jessica Vaughan told FOX News Digital, "It's stunning to hear a United States senator declare that his top priority is to accommodate people from other countries who broke our laws to get here, not to give relief to the citizens in his state who are forced to underwrite all of the costs associated with the border crisis that was instigated by Joe Biden."
MSNBC's Chris Hayes was joined by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy on Wednesday to discuss the border security bill. (Screenshot/MSNBC)
She went on to suggest that his comments "help explain the problems with the Senate bill," and that "it was not a border security bill at all, it was a bill to codify the disastrous catch and release policies of the last three years and issue work permits even faster to an unlimited number of illegal migrants."
Senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center Simon Hankinson slammed the recently failed senate border bill as having been a "wish list" for Democrats and "one step forward and five steps back" for those seeking a secure border.
"I think Murphy grasps the political reality that most Americans don’t support open borders and an unlimited international right to migrate anywhere you want," he told Fox News Digital. "If they keep forcing Americans to assume an endless burden on education, healthcare, police, social services, and their tax liability, it may not be an electoral winner. Look at New York, Chicago, Denver, Boston."
Hankinson said that it was "pure politics" for Democrats to blame Republicans for rejecting a bill so overwhelmingly stuffed with far-left policies.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"Murphy was obviously invested in the bill he helped broker. But to jam 30 years of immigration wish-list reforms into this supplemental package, call the $20 billion spent on bringing inadmissible aliens into the U.S. ‘border security,’ and blame the bill’s certain defeat on Republicans, is pure politics," Hankinson said. "The Senate border bill in the Supplemental was one step forward and five steps back. Without going through it exhaustively, it would not stop massive asylum fraud, catch-and-release, and parole abuse. Worst of all, it gives discretion on enforcement to Biden and Mayorkas, who have proven unworthy of such power. And more besides."
He also recalled that politicians fail to uphold their promises to secure the border, even when they are given the policies they want.
"Democrats have long wanted a ‘pathway to citizenship’ - which means amnesty. The problem with amnesty is first, it rankles American’s sense of fairness to see people who jumped the line ahead of millions who want to come here, some of whom are waiting patiently in the legal system," Hankinson added. "Second, conservatives got burned with the 1986 IRCA, where the left got amnesty, and the right got no enforcement. Third, the flow never stopped after 1986, and it’s become a firehose under Biden."
Fox News' Hannah Panreck contributed to this report.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox