Before you decry “illegal immigrants,” Joe Biden thinks you ought to check your own familial history. That’s what the vice president said Wednesday during an online forum in response to a questioner who claimed her family immigrated to the United States legally from Ireland in the 19th century.
“My great-great grandparents came escaping the famine and they didn’t all come here legally,” Biden said, as quoted by Politico. “They didn’t all come legally. And the existence of the system isn’t all truncated like it is now. I’d check your ancestry to make sure that they did come legally if that’s a concern to you.”
The forum was part of the White House’s effort to rescue immigration reform. An immigration reform bill that passed the Senate in the summer has languished in the House for the past several months, but Biden insisted that the legislation would ultimately become law.
“We’re going to pass this bill, this Senate bill that we’re talking about here. It’s going to happen,” Biden said, as quoted by the Huffington Post.
