Jindal: US Shouldn’t ‘Blindly’ Follow Europe on Immigration

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) declared “we shouldn’t be blindly following Europe where you’ve got second and third generation immigrants that don’t assimilate, don’t integrate” on Wednesday’s “Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.

“Look, America’s built on religious liberty. We don’t discriminate against anybody of any religion and certainly there are many Muslims who are proud, patriotic Americans, and that’s great. But, Megyn, it’s also true that there are radical Muslims, there are Muslims that want to treat women as second class citizens, there are those who want to use our freedoms to undermine the freedoms of others. It makes no sense to let those types of folks come into our country” he stated.

Jindal continued, “here’s the line. In America we say you have the right to believe what you want as long as you’re not harming others. So, as long as you’re not trying to limit the freedoms of other people, we believe in the right of freedom of self-expression, religious liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of association. You don’t have the right to come here and say for example that you think women should be treated as second-class citizens…we’re talking about who do we let into our society, into our country. And if you want to see what — where this is happening, look to Europe. We shouldn’t be blindly following Europe where you’ve got second and third generation immigrants that don’t assimilate, don’t integrate, don’t consider themselves parts of those [societies]. In America, we want people who want to be Americans. We want people who want to come here. We don’t say you have to adopt our creed or any particular creed, but we do say if you come here you need to believe in American Exceptionalism, I believe you need to learn English, and I believe you’ve got to respect the freedoms of other people.”

Jindal defended this idea by pointing to previous restrictions on immigration for Communists or people who wish to undermine US foreign policy, and arguing “there’s nothing wrong in saying we want immigrants who will make our country stronger not weaker, we don’t want people who are going to come here that are dedicated to Islamic — radical Islamic terrorism or radical Islam. We don’t want people who are going to undermine freedoms for other people. If we don’t, if we don’t insist on that, we’re going to go the way of Europe.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett