Pennsylvania Democrat on immigration: If ‘you're committing crimes, you got to get sent back’
Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) said on Sunday that his constituents agree with most Americans that immigrants who entered the country illegally and commit crimes should be deported.
He added, however, that his constituents also support a path to legal status for those who “play by the rules,” in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”
"Look, I think most people in my district and across the country think, you're here without authorization, you've come illegally, you're committing crimes, you got to get sent back to where you came," Deluzio said when asked how Democrats navigate the issue of immigration, on which their position diverges from the majority of the country,
Deluzio, a first-term Democrat whose district voted for President Trump in 2024, said Democrats and Republicans are aligned on issues like providing a path to citizenship for Dreamers.
“I also think, again, Democrats and Republicans who believe in public safety, believe in border security, they want folks who are, say, brought here as children, like dreamers, who are going to work hard, play by the rules. They can pay their taxes. And they got to do all the things they can to become good neighbors of us here, but they should have a path to have an earned status in this country.
“And we can do both of those things. We can have strong and meaningful border security. We can have a better immigration system, and we can have a path for folks who play by the rules, who follow our laws, to earn status in this country. We can do all those things, and by the way, we have legislation to do that,” he said.
The Hill is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns NewsNation.