In his 1995 State of the Union speech, then-President Bill Clinton repeatedly dared to repeatedly use the term “illegal aliens” while calling for tighter border security and doubling deportations.
In his speech, Clinton recognized that people “are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country.” He called for the border to be secured, hiring a record number of border guards, and “deporting twice as many illegal aliens as before.”
Clinton even expressed umbrage that illegal aliens were stealing jobs from actual U.S. citizens.
“The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers,” Clinton told the audience. “We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws.”
Clinton received a large standing ovation for his remarks.
His wife, Former U.S. senator (D-NY) and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as recently as 2006, was also in support of securing the border. As a senator, Clinton voted in support of building a wall on the southern border.
Much of what Clinton stated and proposed in his 1995 speech has been echoed by President Donald Trump.
However, the Democratic Party’s platform on illegal immigration has shifted drastically from where it was under President Clinton.
The Democrat Party’s official website states: “Democrats in Congress and in states and cities across the country are already standing up to Trump’s hatred and bigotry to defend their immigrant neighbors.”
In 2014, Hillary Clinton said that deportation “makes no sense.”
Many Democrats have supported sanctuary cities, where existing immigration law is not enforced by city officials.
In January, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), House Minority Leader, said that illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities aren’t breaking the law, calling them “law-abiding citizens.”