Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum offered a spirited defense of mass deportations at Thursday’s Republican undercard debate in South Carolina. Only he didn’t call it deportation. Instead, he explained, immigration officials would “export America” back to Latin America. Sure, kids who were raised in the United States would be forcibly relocated, but their knowledge of English and capitalism could pay dividends for them down the road in their home countries:
When we say we need to send people back, I mean we send people back. Let me just make one point. I was in Storm Lake, Iowa, the other day near a Tyson’s plant. Ninety-one percent of the kids that go to the elementary school there are minority kids. And they said, ‘Well, what are you gonna do with all these people, their families, they’ve lived here a long time.’ I said I’m gonna give ’em a gift. I’m gonna give them the gift of being able to help the country they were born in, and we’re gonna export America. The education they were able to receive, they learned about the English language, they learned about capitalism, they learned about democracy. You want to stop the flow of immigrants? Let’s send 6 million Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, El Salvadorans back into their country so they can start a renaissance in their country so they won’t be coming here anymore!
This is the worst study abroad program ever.
Master image: Marc Nozell/Flickr
