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Donald Trump Jr says his family lived ‘incredible immigrant story’ - then immediately claims migrants are destroying American schools

'We've lived an incredible immigrant story — and a success story — in this country,' first son claims in contradictory interview

Chris Riotta
New York
Wednesday 06 February 2019 17:40 GMT
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Donald Trump Jr says his family has lived an 'incredible immigrant story'

Donald Trump Jr has defended the hard-line stance on immigration his father took during Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address, describing the first family as the product of an “incredible immigrant story” in an interview with Fox News.

The 41-year-old first son warned of immigration causing a decline in America’s allegedly crumbling public school and health care systems while claiming his father was “all for immigration” — albeit with several exceptions.

“My mom is an immigrant. My father’s mom is an immigrant, we’ve lived an incredible immigrant story — and a success story — in this country,” the first son said on Wednesday morning. “That said, we can’t just haphazardly let everyone come in, let everyone come into a system that they’re likely to never pay into, where they’re going to destroy our school systems, which are already so overburdened.”

“Our health care system, the same thing; you know, we want to be compassionate, we want to help everyone, but we have to help our own people first,” he added. “Once we deal with all of those problems, then we can deal with the rest of the world.”

The interview followed Donald Trump’s second State of the Union address to a joint-session of the US Congress in which the president renewed his vows to build a wall along the US-Mexico border and made exaggerated claims about immigrant violence across the country.

“Working-class Americans are left to pay the price for mass illegal migration — reduced jobs, lower wages, overburdened schools, hospitals so crowded you can’t get in, increased crime, and a depleted social safety net,” Mr Trump said on Tuesday night.

Numerous studies have revealed immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the native-born US population, including both undocumented and legal immigrants.

“I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever,” he added, reportedly going off the transcript and against White House proposals which have sought a reduction in legal immigration. “But they have to come in legally.”

Still, the president’s son reiterated those claims on Wednesday, suggesting the rest of the world uses merit-based immigration programmes and lambasting the Democratic Party for its “out of touch” stance on illegal immigration.

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“It’s amazing that we’re having these arguments today,” he said. “Democrats are so out of touch. And, you know, their motives are not pure.

Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade concluded the interview by saying the first son “clearly” would have “a great political future should he ever run.”

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