On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” House Minority Leader Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated that immigration reform that gives people in the country illegally legal status, but forbids citizenship is “just not respectful, and not worthy of our country.”
After stating that she hopes President Trump is open to immigration reform, Pelosi was asked about whether she could live with a path to legal status for people in the country illegally. She answered, “I think it’s more what our country is about. We have criticized other countries that said we utilize you as a workforce, but you’re not fully present in our country. In my view, it’s very important for us to say the path to citizenship is the dignity that these people –.”
She added, “[I]f it’s something that forbids citizenship, no, I couldn’t sign on to that. If we want to talk about — I think there are plenty of ways we can work in a bipartisan way on immigration. In fact, we have to.”
When asked about a plan that would give legal status initially, and a potential path to citizenship down the road, Pelosi answered, “It’s always just a path. All we’ve talked about is a path to citizenship. … But to be a country that says, we have — not even second-class citizenship, because it isn’t citizenship, it’s just not respectful, and not worthy of our country.”
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