America
Bobby Jindal warns of immigrant 'invasion'
By
By Arun Kumar
Washington, Aug 31
Republican presidential
candidate Bobby Jindal, son of immigrant parents from India, says that
immigrants who do not adopt American values represent an "invasion".
"Immigration
without integration is not immigration; it's invasion, he told ABC
Sunday when asked about tough stances against illegal immigration taken
by Republican front-runner Donald Trump and other party candidates.
"Look,
as a child of immigrants, my parents have never taken this country for
granted," said the Louisiana governor who was born in the US three
months after his pregnant mother came from India.
"Every single
day they are grateful to live in the greatest country in the history of
the world. And I think this election is largely about the idea and the
idea of America is slipping away in front of us," Jindal said.
"When
it comes to immigration policy, what I've experienced and seen is that a
smart immigration policy makes our country stronger; a dumb one makes
us weaker. We've got a dumb one today," he said.
"Yes, we need to
secure our border. Stop talking about it. I think we need to insist
that folks who come here come here legally, learn English, adopt our
values, roll up our sleeves and get to work."
Pressed on what he
meant by "adopt our values," Jindal, who is currently 13th among 17
Republican candidates polling an average of 1.8 percent votes, said that
the US must avoid what has happened in some European countries.
"You've
got second-, third-generation immigrants that don't consider themselves
part of those [European] societies, those cultures. We in our country
shouldn't be giving freedoms to people who want to undermine the freedom
for other people," he said.
"I think we need to move away from
hyphenated Americans," Jindal said taking up his pet theme. We're not
African-Americans or Asian-Americans, Indian-Americans, rich or poor
Americans: we're all Americans."
"And the reason this is so
important: immigration without integration is not immigration; it's
invasion. My parents are proud of their Indian heritage, but they came
here to be Americans and they love this country. They wanted to raise
their children as Americans," he said.
Meanwhile, in Iowa, the
first nominating state, Trump is the first choice among 23 percent of
likely Republican caucus goers -- jumping from 4 percent in May,
according to a Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll this weekend.
In a surprising surge to second, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is polling at 18 percent.
Republican voters appear to be warming to Trump's unconventional and confrontational style.
His
favourability numbers among Iowa Republicans have jumped 35 points
since January leaving establishment favourite Jeb Bush and others
struggling to adapt.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])