Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) explained to Representative Clay Higgins (R-LA) that the founders were the original illegal immigrants to America.
After Congressman Higgins defended one of his colleagues by saying that the founders never intended for all this illegal immigration, constitutional scholar Congressman Raskin said, “There was no immigration law when the Constitution was adopted. In fact, the only illegal immigrants in the country, at least according to the native population, were those who wrote the Constitution. There was no federal law.”
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Higgins: You said the founders never anticipated this volume of illegal immigrants
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Raskin: When the Constitution was adopted there was no immigration law. In fact, the only illegal immigrants in the country, at least according to the native population, were those who wrote the Constitution pic.twitter.com/nsylktzn4a
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 10, 2024
For the native population that was already in the United States, the original illegal immigrants were the first settlers, who became the colonists, who became the revolutionaries who fought for independence and later wrote the constitution that is the foundation of the current system of government.
Republicans routinely refuse to acknowledge the true story of the nation’s founding. Their version of events is that white people wrote the Constitution and nothing else that happened should be discussed.
Representative Raskin was right. The United States is a nation of immigrants, and the original illegal immigrants who arrived on these shores are the ones whose descendants would later write the Constitution.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a member of the White House press pool and a congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
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