JIM ACOSTA: --but in other ways, do obtain a green card at some point. They do it through a lot of hard work. And, yes, they may learn English as a second language later on in life. But this whole--
STEPHEN MILLER: So, but, Jim--
JIM ACOSTA: This whole notion that, well, they could learn -- you know, they have to learn English before they get to the United States, are we just going to bring in people from Great Britain and Australia?
STEPHEN MILLER: Jim, actually, I have to honestly say I am shocked at your statement that you think that only people from Great Britain and Australia would know English, as, actually, it reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree, that in your mind -- no, this is an amazing -- this is an amazing moment. This is an amazing moment. That you think only people from Great Britain or Australia would speak English is so insulting to millions of hard-working immigrants who do speak English from all over the world.
JIM ACOSTA: My father came to this country not speaking any English.
STEPHEN MILLER: Jim, have you honestly -- Jim, have you honestly never met an immigrant from another country who speaks English, outside of Great Britain and Australia? Is that your personal experience?
JIM ACOSTA: Sir, of course there are people who come to this country from other parts of the world.
STEPHEN MILLER: But that's not what you said! And it shows -- it shows your cosmopolitan bias. And I just want to say--
JIM ACOSTA: It just sounds like you're trying to engineer--
STEPHEN MILLER: And I just want to say--
JIM ACOSTA: --the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country through this policy.
STEPHEN MILLER: Jim, that is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said. And for you, that's still a really -- the notion that you think that this is a racist bill is so wrong and so insulting.
JIM ACOSTA: I didn't say it was a racist bill.
AMY GOODMAN: That was President Trump's senior policy adviser, Stephen Miller, some might say accosting CNN's Jim Acosta on Wednesday over President Trump's push to admit only English-speaking immigrants. Well, Acosta also asked Stephen Miller about the iconic poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus that's inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty, which reads: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
JIM ACOSTA: What you're proposing, or what the president is proposing here, does not sound like it's in keeping with American tradition when it comes to immigration. The Statue of Liberty says, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." It doesn't say anything about speaking English or being able to be a computer programmer. Aren't you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant coming into this country, if you're telling them you have to speak English? Can't people learn how to speak English when they get here?
STEPHEN MILLER: Well, first of all, right now, it's a requirement that to be naturalized, you have to speak English. So the notion that speaking English wouldn't be a part of our immigration systems would be actually very ahistorical. Secondly, I don't want to get off into a whole thing about history here, but the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of liberty enlightening the world. It's a symbol of American liberty lighting the world. The poem that you're referring to was added later. It's not actually a part of the original Statue of Liberty.
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