Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a young woman who admitted she was an illegal immigrant that she was “incredibly brave” for her admission while openly campaigning for amnesty-type reforms.
The woman, a 19-year-old who gave her name as Nova, made the statement at a No Ceilings event with the Clinton Foundation and Microsoft, attended by Mrs. Clinton and daughter, Chelsea.
The woman said, RealClearPolitics.com reported: “My name is Nova. I am 19 years old. … For the first time publicly I want to say that I’m an undocumented immigrant. I want to say that it’s been extremely difficult for me to empower myself in America because I came here illegally when I was five.”
She then went on to say she can’t get a job, vote or attend the college of her dreams because of her lack of proper documentation.
“It’s been very hard because I don’t have the documentation here to get a job, to vote, which is essential, obviously, to [get] representation, to buy an apartment, to go to college — so I couldn’t even go to my dream college because of that — to get no financial aid.”
The woman then asked about Mrs. Clinton’s views of immigration reform and of “girls like me — and I’m not the only one here, there are 11 million people standing behind me here and I can only imagine how many girls there,” RealClearPolitics.com reported.
Mrs. Clinton’s reply:
“Oh Nova. Wow. That was incredibly brave,” she said. “And I thank you for doing that because it’s important to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. That’s one of the big hopes I have, is that we can get back to being a country where people can understand what others are going through and have empathy for it and really try to help each other.”
The former first lady then went on to explain she favored there immigration reform proposal that passed the Senate — an amnesty package that the House refuses to consider.
“And I think that was a big missed opportunity for our country,” Mrs. Clinton said, of the House failure to pass the Senate version. “I’m a huge supporter of immigration reform and a path to citizenship.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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