CNN correspondent Jim Acosta and White House adviser Stephen Miller got into a heated exchange during a Wednesday press briefing.
Acosta said what the White House proposed on immigration “does not sound like it’s in keeping with American tradition when it comes to immigration.” Acosta went on to quote the poem emblazoned on a plaque beneath the Statue of Liberty.
Miller was taking questions on the Trump administration’s support for legislation to cut the number of legal immigrants allowed to enter the country.
“It doesn’t say anything about speaking English or being able to be a computer programmer,” Acosta said, citing the poem, which was added to the Statue of Liberty in 1903 — 17 years after the statue was unveiled.
“Aren’t you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant coming into this country,” Acosta said. Miller reminded Acosta the poem was not added to the Statue of Liberty until later in its history, and the heated exchange began.
“So you’re saying that does not always represent what the country has always thought of immigration coming into this country,” Acosta said. “That sounds like some national park revisionism. The Statue of Liberty has always been a beacon of hope to the world…” Acosta said as Miller repeatedly tried to cut in.
“I appreciate your speech,” Miller said before going through the various levels of immigration the U.S. has had over the years. “Tell me what years meet Jim Acosta’s version of the Statue of Liberty’s poem ‘Law of the Land.'”
After a debate over immigrants speaking English, Acosta said it “sounds like you’re trying to engineer an ethnic flow of people into this country with this policy.” Millers said the comment was the most “outrageous” and “offensive, ignorant and foolish things you’ve ever said.”
“Do you at CNN really not know the difference between green card policy and illegal immigration, Miller said as the argument continued.
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