Capehart: We Need More Immigrants, But They Have to 'Reinforce American Values'

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Washington Post Associate Editor and MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart responded to the debate among Republicans about legal immigration by stating that the United States needs to allow people who come to the U.S. to get educated to stay and “we need to have more people in this country who are able to do the jobs that are here,” but also those people need to be individuals who “also bring the values that reinforce American values.”

Capehart stated that the debate also created a conversation about experts and expertise and that “the country does need the experts and their expertise who come to this country, get a solid education, and then, because of our broken immigration system, have to take all that knowledge that they learned here and bring it back home.”

Co-host Lisa Desjardins then asked, “Jonathan, you just said this sparks an even bigger conversation. What do you mean by that?”

Capehart answered, “Well, the bigger conversation, leave aside the cultural issue, but also — but immigration. Like, we need to have more people in this country who are able to do the jobs that are here, but who also bring the values that reinforce American values.”

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