Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) lambasted Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) to her face on Wednesday after she claimed President Donald Trump’s administration was targeting immigrant communities.
The war of words erupted during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when Hirono remarked on the Stop Citizen Abuse and Misrepresentation Act (SCAM Act), Fox News reported Friday. The outlet referred to it as a “denaturalization bill.”
The Democrat senator argued naturalized citizens would face stricter requirements and pointed to the fact she was the only naturalized citizen on the committee.
“I am horrified by the implication that naturalized citizens basically get second-class citizenship… As a naturalized citizen, I’m proud of it. I can’t think of a more undemocratic, un-American thing to do to someone who chooses to become a U.S. citizen than to hold this over their heads and treat us like second-class citizens,” Hirono said, noting the act allowed prosecutions for welfare fraud.
Watch Hirono’s full comments here:
In response, Schmitt highlighted the fact that American citizens have been “ripped off” by people who have come into the United States to target them through fraud and other crimes.
He then accused her of defending murderers, rapists, and fraudsters who have hurt American citizens, stating, “You have nothing but fear-mongering here.”
“What I’m saying in this bill is if you do those things to the American people, if you take advantage of taxpayers… if you commit a terrorist act, if you commit wholesale welfare fraud, within 10 years, you’re damn right we’re deporting you… If you are convicted in a court of law of these crimes, absolutely we should not only convict you, but we should deport you. Gone. And if you think that’s some sort of negative assertion toward me, I’ll take it. I love it,” he said.
“That’s what we should be doing more of in this country because people are coming here and they’re ripping off taxpayers, and I for one don’t want to see it anymore,” Schmitt added:
Watch his full comments to Hirono here:
Meanwhile, a recent national survey showed voters increasingly saw fraud and misuse of taxpayer money as a huge driver of higher costs for families, Breitbart News reported in April.
The Fox article noted, “The Trump administration has claimed that anti-fraud efforts have uncovered billions of dollars, enough to potentially balance the budget.”
In a social media post on Friday, Schmitt said, “Deportations are a great affordability policy for America. Biden’s mass migration flooded the housing market, flooded the labor market, crushed wages, drove up rents, and then acted confused when young Americans couldn’t afford a home. Deportations can reverse it.”
Click here to read more Breitbart News articles on issues surrounding the rampant fraud that has for too long been hurting American families and the economy.
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