Sec. Rubio: Green Card Holders Won't Be Deported Unless They're A Terror Group 'Sympathizer'

2 days ago

During a press briefing with Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about what assurances he can give Jamaican green card holders living in the United States.

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Transcript

00:00I'm from Andrea Chisholm from Television Jamaica.

00:04Secretary Rubio, given changes to US immigration policies,

00:08there are some Jamaicans who are afraid to travel back

00:12to Jamaica, even though they are legitimate green card holders.

00:16What assurances can you give to those individuals

00:18that they will have no difficulty returning

00:20to the United States?

00:21Well, yeah, green card or residency?

00:25I mean, permanent residence, you're asking me about?

00:28Yes, OK.

00:29OK.

00:29And secondly, what problems, if any,

00:31does America have with China's investment in Jamaica?

00:35Well, look, I mean, China is a rich and powerful country.

00:37Our problem is not investment.

00:40Our problem is predatory practices.

00:41That's what we're concerned about.

00:43What we have seen all over the world

00:44is that China comes in and says, here's

00:46a bunch of money for a project they never build.

00:48They bring their own workers to do the work.

00:50They don't hire the locals.

00:51They bring their own workers.

00:53And oftentimes, it comes attached

00:54with a huge loan that can never be repaid,

00:57and now they hold it over your head forever.

00:59That's our concern.

01:00Our concern is unfair practices, too, where they come in.

01:03They're government subsidized companies,

01:04underbid everybody because they're subsidized.

01:07But then they come back and charge you

01:09whatever they want because now they've got the contract.

01:11So these are the things that we remain very concerned about.

01:14Again, not specifically about Jamaica, but in general.

01:16And so that's what we'll continue to highlight.

01:20On the first point, I would say, let

01:22me talk about that if you're a green card holder,

01:24you're not illegally in the United States.

01:27You're a green card holder.

01:28You are legally in the United States.

01:29What the president has said, and I

01:30don't know how anybody can disagree with this,

01:32every country in the world has immigration laws.

01:35And immigration laws, if you don't enforce them,

01:37you don't have immigration laws.

01:38Over the last few years, we've had, what, 13, 14,

01:4015 million people enter the United States

01:43unlawfully and irregularly.

01:44No country in the world can assume that.

01:46By the way, that's not unique to us, right?

01:48Even here in Jamaica, you face challenges of migration.

01:51And it's not that we don't sympathize

01:53with people that are leaving difficult circumstances.

01:56It's that no society can absorb mass migration

01:59from anywhere in the world.

02:00You just can't do it.

02:01And we're facing that challenge.

02:03That's not specific to Jamaica.

02:04I'm just speaking in general.

02:05And so the president is doing something

02:07that, frankly, hasn't been done in a long time.

02:09He's enforcing our immigration laws.

02:10And that's what we're doing.

02:12So if you're a green card holder,

02:13you're not illegally in the United States.

02:16I think the challenge is, for those

02:18who are illegally in the United States,

02:19we have to have immigration laws.

02:21They have to be followed.

02:22I mean, I don't know why that's an unreasonable demand.

02:25And frankly, I mean, Jamaica is not

02:26a major source of illegal migration, to be frank.

02:29It's not even in the top 10 or top 20, for that matter,

02:31I don't think.

02:33But that said, we are enforcing our immigration laws.

02:36Because here's what happens if you don't.

02:38You'll get another 12 million people.

02:40And if tomorrow, Jamaica announced,

02:43anybody who wants to come can come in.

02:44You're going to get a lot of people, too.

02:46And it's going to be very disruptive.

02:48So we need to have immigration laws.

02:50And we need to enforce them.

02:51And that's what we are, that's what the president is doing.

02:54That's what he promised voters he would do.

02:56And that's what we're going to continue to do.

02:59But if you're a green card holder,

03:00you're illegally in the United States, unless, unless,

03:03and I say this because a lot of these people come,

03:05unless you're some student visa holder who's

03:08a sympathizer of some terrorist organization

03:10and is running around in our streets

03:11like a lunatic, burning down buildings

03:13and attacking students at universities.

03:15If you're one of these lunatics that's

03:17going to put on a mask over your face

03:19and break into a student union center and harass students,

03:21and we wouldn't have let you in in the first place.

03:23If you had told us that, if you told us,

03:26I'm going to America not just to study at your university,

03:28but to tear up your campus, we would have never let you in.

03:31And if you do that, once you come into the United States,

03:34we're going to kick you out.

03:35We're going to do that.

03:36And I don't care, I don't care what terrorist organization

03:39is supporting, we're going to kick you out.

03:40If you're a gang member, we're going to kick you out.

03:43If you're one of these violent gang members

03:45that's coming to the United States,

03:47then we're going to kick you out.

03:48That we're going to do.

03:49There's no doubt about it.

03:50But the president's very committed to that.

03:53But if you're a green card holder

03:55and you're not any of these things, you're going to be fine.

Sec. Rubio: Green Card Holders Won't Be Deported Unless They're A Terror Group 'Sympathizer'

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