Buchanan: Illegal immigration is “an invasion of the United States of America” and "[t]he whole world is coming"

Written by Media Matters Staff

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On MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan claimed that the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States is “not immigration” but “an invasion” that is “coming not only from Mexico,” but “from the whole world.”

During a May 15 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, MSNBC political analyst and former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan claimed that the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States is “not immigration” but “an invasion” that is “coming not only from Mexico,” but “from the whole world.”

Buchanan, who was also a speechwriter for President Nixon, appeared with former presidential adviser David Gergen, who served in the administrations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton.

From the 5 p.m. ET hour of the May 15 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: But what good is passing a -- David, what good is getting a bill through the Senate if it dies there in conference?

GERGEN: Well, that's the point. I mean, he [President Bush] was going to get this bill through the Senate regardless of whether he gave the speech. The question is -- is whether in providing the [National] Guard and whether he's making this effort to seal the borders, whether he's also going to be able to bring along the House conservatives to sign on to the rest of the program that McCain, Kennedy, and company have built up. That's the big issue now, and the leadership comes and whether he can bring -- having given the conservatives something which they really want, which is a much stronger border effort, can he bring them along to sign on to the bill? I don't know. Pat, do you think the House conservatives will come along with him on the guest-worker program?

BUCHANAN: I think it's -- the conservatives won't. I think he's going to go after [House Speaker J. Dennis] Hastert [R-IL] and [House Majority Leader John A.] Boehner [R-OH] and people like that. But I will say this, David. Look, what he's doing now is baby steps on the border. You're sending a few National Guard down there to do the administrative jobs and release the border patrol guys for the border. Chris, as you talked earlier, we have, the president is going to say tonight, over 6 million people have been caught. It's not immigration. There is an invasion of the United States of America. And until you put a security fence now along 2,000 miles of border, you are not going to stop this invasion. And it's coming not only from Mexico, it's coming from the whole world. The president himself conceded that 150,000 illegals who are other than Mexicans, three times as many as there were two years ago, were caught at the border. The whole world is coming. And a couple of National Guard guys sitting there doing administrative work ain't going to stop it.