Menendez: ‘Chain Migration’ Is ‘Obscene’ Phrase, ‘Incredibly Cruel’ to People Whose Ancestors Were Brought as Slaves

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Wolf,” Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) stated he finds the phrase “chain migration” “obscene” and “incredibly cruel to those whose ancestors were brought to this country in chains in slavery.”

Menendez said, “I find it obscene, the phrase ‘chain migration.’ It is incredibly cruel to those whose ancestors were brought to this country in chains in slavery. It is a dehumanizing element of what is, in essence, family reunification, which has been the core of American immigration principle for over a century, the belief that when we have families together, that ultimately, they strengthen, not only themselves and help each other, but they help build communities and help build our nation.”

He continued, “And so, we gave on some of those elements. We gave very significant amount of moneys to the border wall. We gave on changing the nature of the diversity lottery. Which is not, as the president says, that you put your hand in arbitrarily and you pick out the worst of the worst. These people have to go through every background check and every criteria that anyone emigrating to the United States has to meet. So, nonetheless, in order to find pathway — but we cannot be talking about a dramatic change in immigration policy, when we’re talking even about 1.8 million, when you want to change the whole nature of even legal immigration to this country. That’s a much broader debate.”

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