FACT CHECK: Did Nancy Pelosi Say A Border Wall Would ‘Violate The Rights of Millions Of Illegals’?
An image shared on Facebook by the page One Nation Under God claimed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once said that “building a wall will violate the rights of millions of illegals.”
“#TermLimits” the caption reads.
Verdict: False
There is no record of Pelosi ever saying this. She has called the idea of a border wall “immoral,” but did not say it would “violate the rights” of illegal immigrants.
Fact Check:
President Donald Trump has made immigration a centerpiece of his presidency, leading to partisan fights in Washington, D.C. Only months ago, his insistence on $5.7 billion in border wall funding resulted in a partial government shutdown that lasted 35 days.
In a post that has been shared over 31,000 times since it was posted in May 2018, the Facebook page claims that Pelosi said a wall would “violate the rights of millions of illegals.”
“Yes, she actually said that,” the image reiterates.
Even though Pelosi has been vocal about her opposition to the wall – in April 2017, she called it “immoral, expensive, unwise” – there is no evidence she ever said this. The Daily Caller could not find the statement in news coverage or elsewhere, and as a prominent figure in politics, such a comment would likely have been widely covered.
The meme inspired some Facebook users to comment that illegal immigrants “have no rights,” though this too is not accurate. People in the U.S. illegally are not eligible to vote, but they are afforded basic constitutional rights such as due process.
“The Supreme Court held in the 1800’s that aliens who have entered the United States have due process rights, even if they entered the United States illegally,” Professor Sarah Cleveland of Columbia Law School told the Caller in an email. “And yes, undocumented aliens are protected by other constitutional rights.”
