White House Chief of Staff John Kelly claimed that a vast majority of undocumented immigrants to the U.S. “don’t have skills” and would not “integrate well” into American society.
During his interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition”, Kelly commented on the Department of Justice’s new “zero-tolerance” policy, which calls for separating more undocumented children from their parents among other things. “The vast majority of the people that move illegally into the United States are not bad people. They’re not criminals. They’re not MS13,” Kelly said in the interview. “But they’re also not people that would easily assimilate into the United States, into our modern society. They’re overwhelmingly rural people…. In the countries, they come from, fourth-, fifth-, sixth-grade educations are kind of the norm. They don’t speak English; obviously that’s a big thing. … They don’t integrate well, they don’t have skills.”
Kelly also said that although he sympathizes with immigrants for their reasons why they want to come to the U.S., “the laws are the laws,” adding that the zero-tolerance policy “is a technique that no one hopes will be used extensively or for very long.”
Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the new policy, which is seen as the response for the White House report that shows an increase in illegal border crossings. The new policy was announced in a memo last month and it was officially enacted earlier this week.
“If you cross the border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. It’s that simple,” Sessions said to reporters during his speech at the U.S.-Mexico border. He added that “if you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, then we will prosecute you. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you. And that child may be separated from you, as required by law.”
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