Chuck Schumer: Tea Party Opposes Immigration for Making America 'Less White'

by Tony Lee

Jan 26, 2014 12:56 PM PT

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), once part of the "Gang of Eight" in the Senate that wrote the immigration bill that the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of American workers, believes that conservatives are opposed to amnesty because they don't want America to become "less white."

"Yes, things have changed. White Anglo-Saxon men are not exclusively running the country anymore," he said Thursday."President Obama lost the white male vote 35 to 62 percent yet he recaptured the presidency – by 5 million votes and a resounding electoral college margin."

Schumer said the changing demographics also "[explain] why so many on the right vehemently opposed the Senate immigration bill."

"In a pre-tea party world, the Senate immigration bill would have been welcomed by House Republicans," he said. "However, the tea party rank and file know it's a different America. It looks different; it prays different; it works different. This is unsettling and angering to some."

What Schumer did not mention is that the fiercest opponents to comprehensive immigration reform in Congress, like Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and outside of Congress, like pro-enforcement advocate D.A. King, have repeatedly emphasized that one of their primary reasons for opposing amnesty is the devastating impact it would have on the wages of working-class Americans of all backgrounds, races, and ethnicities. Groups like The Black American Leadership Alliance, for instance, have held numerous marches and rallies in opposition to the amnesty legislation because of the detrimental impact it would have on wages, particularly among minorities.

Schumer also noted the strength of the Tea Party, saying that immigration reform legislation would have passed a long time agoif not for the Tea Party movement.

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