Joe Biden doubles down on his "illigal immigrants are already Americans" assertion:
Vice President Joe Biden marked Cinco de Mayo, traditionally a celebration of Mexican culture, with an impassioned call for immigration overhaul.
[. . .]
The vice president also reiterated his controversial stance that undocumented immigrants were “already Americans.”
“I know I was criticized for saying, a couple months ago in Florida, that these 11 million folks in the shadows are already Americans. And I got pretty roundly criticized for that. But you know, they are Americans. They may not be citizens, but they are Americans,” Biden said.
“The definition of Teddy Roosevelt, who said, ‘Americanism is not a question of birthplace or creed, or line of descent, it’s a question of principles, idealism and character.’ And I would argue that those 11 million folks who are here, breaking their neck, working hard, they are Americans,” he added.
By Biden's reasoning -- or rather, by his tortured interpretation of TR's reasoing -- any people anywhere are already Americans as long as they want to be; the only difference between them and the ones that actually cross our border is that they're less ambitious, apparently. So maybe we should just declare everybody in the world an American and be done with it. Talk about instant world peace!
Rand Paul had the best answer for this, when he was asked about Jeb Bush's "illegal immigrants come here as an act of love" comment:
