Illegal Immigration Quotes
Statement made during televised debate with Walter Mondale, October 21, 1984 (see citation).
The most commonly cited part of this quote is in bold. The full quote is provided for context.
The words “illegal alien” are crude and needlessly harsh. There are people who are in American illegally, but the people are not illegal. There is no such term in United States law as “illegal alien”. See {640788}.
The quote is often misreported as “I am, you know, adamantly against illegal illegal immigration."
The congressman was distraught with the national immigration picture at that time. He believed that the influx of Hispanic immigrants into the United States would radically change the culture and the immigrant culture would then predominate. Throughout American history with every wave of immigration, there have been fears expressed about the culture of America. The Irish immigration, the Scandinavians, the Germans, Italians, Jews, the Chinese—all engendered fear that they would “take over” and radically change the country. The reality is that none of them took over but all made some changes and influenced cultural direction of the nation. The congressman was repeating an old refrain.