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Jim Acosta: “what you're proposing or what the president's proposing here does not sound like it's in keeping with american tradition when it comes to immigration. the statue of liberty says, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, you're in debris-free. it doesn't say anything about speaking english or being able to be a computer programmer. aren't you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant coming into this country if you're telling them you have to speak english? how many people learn how to speak english when they get here?” Stephen Miller: “well, first of all, right now, it's a requirement that to be naturalized, you have to speak english. so, the notion that speaking english wouldn't be a part of our immigration systems would be actually very ahistorical. secondly, i don't want to get off into a whole thing about history here, but the statue of liberty is a symbol of liberty enlightening the world, is a symbol of american liberty lighting the world. the poem that you're referring to that was added later is not actually part of the original statue of liberty, but more fundamentally, the history, but more fundamentally, the history.” Jim Acosta: “you're saying that does not represent what the country has always thought of as immigration coming into this country?” Stephen Miller: “i'm saying that the notion...” Jim Acosta: “stephen, i'm sorry.” Stephen Miller: “no, you're...” Jim Acosta: “that sounds like...” Stephen Miller: “jim, let me ask you a question.” Jim Acosta: “that sounds like some national park revisionism.” Stephen Miller: “no.” Jim Acosta: “what i'm asking you is, the statue of liberty has always been a hope to the world for people to send their people to this country, and they're not always going to speak english, stephen. they're not always going to be highly skilled.” Stephen Miller: “jim, jim, jim, i appreciate your speech, jim, i appreciate your speech, so let's talk about this.” Jim Acosta: “it was a modest...” Stephen Miller: “jim, let's talk about this. in 1970, when we let in 300,000 people a year, was that violating or not violating the statue of liberty law of the land? in the 1990s, when it was half a million a year, was it violating or not violating the statue of liberty law of the land? was it violating, when it was 700,000 a year, was it violating the statue of liberty?” Jim Acosta: “no, tell me what years...” Stephen Miller: “tell me what years meet jim acosta's definition of the statue of liberty, home law of the land.” Jim Acosta: “so you're saying a million a year is the statue of liberty number, 900,000 violates it, 800,000 violates it. you're sort of bringing a press one for english philosophy here to immigration and that's never what the united states has been about, stephen.” Stephen Miller: “but you're also, your statement's also shockingly ahistorical in another respect too, which is if you look at the history of immigration, it's actually ebbed and flowed. we've had periods of very large waves, followed by periods of less immigration and more immigration. and during the...” Jim Acosta: “we're in a period of immigration right now, the president wants to build a wall, he wanna bring about a sweeping change to immigration.” Stephen Miller: “surely, jim, you don't actually think that a wall affects green card policy. you couldn't possibly believe that, do you?” Jim Acosta: “actually, the notion that you actually think immigration is a historic law, the foreign born population of the united states today...” Stephen Miller: “jim, jim, i wanna be serious, jim, do you really, cnn, not know the difference between green card policy and illegal immigration? i mean, you really don't know that?” Jim Acosta: “he came to this country in 1962, right before the cuban missile crisis, and obtained a green card.” Stephen Miller: “yes.” Jim Acosta: “people who immigrated to this country could eventually...” Stephen Miller: “so, jim, as a factual question, jim, as a factual question...” Jim Acosta: “yes, they may obtain a green card at some point, they do it through a lot of hard work, and yes, they may learn english as a second language later on in life. but this whole notion of, well, they could learn, they have to learn english before they get to the united states. are we just gonna bring in people from great britain and australia?” Stephen Miller: “jim, actually, i have to honestly say, i am shocked at your statement that you think that only people from great britain and australia would know english. it's actually, it reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree, that in your mind...” Jim Acosta: “no, this is an amazing moment.” Stephen Miller: “this is an amazing moment that you think only people from great britain or australia would speak english is so insulting to millions of hardworking immigrants who do speak english from all over the world. jim, have you honestly, jim, have you honestly never met an immigrant from another country who speaks english outside of great britain and australia? is that your personal experience?” Jim Acosta: “of course there are people who come to this country from other parts of the world.” Stephen Miller: “but that's not what you said. and it shows your cosmopolitan bias. and i just wanna say...” Jim Acosta: “it sounds like you're trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country.” Stephen Miller: “jim, that is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant, and foolish things you've ever said. and for you, that's still a really, the notion that you think that this is a racist bill is so wrong and so insulting. jim, the reality is that the foreign born population into our country has quadrupled since 1970. that's a fact. it's been mostly driven by green card policy. now this bill allows for immediate nuclear family members to come into the country, much as they would today, and then it adds an additional point space system. the people who've been hurt the most, the people who've been hurt the most by the policy you're advocating are apparently just unfettered, uncontrolled migration. the people who've been hurt the most by the policy you're advocating are immigrant workers, and minority workers, and african-american workers, and hispanic workers.” Jim Acosta: “and it has, are you targeting the african-american community?” Stephen Miller: “you brought it up again.” Jim Acosta: “you said you wanted to have a conversation and not target. is it gonna be a target now? this is what we wanna do. are you targeting the african-american community or are you going to target?” Stephen Miller: “i'm not trying to be funny. i know what you're saying, what you're saying is 100% correct. we want to help unemployed african-americans in this country and unemployed workers of all backgrounds get jobs and insinuations like jim made trying to ascribe nefarious motives to a compassionate immigration measure designed to help newcomers and current arrivals alike is wrong. and this is a positive optimistic proposal that says 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now, we wanna have an immigration system that takes care of the people who are coming here and the people who are already living here by having standards, by having a real clear requirement that you be able to support yourself financially, by making sure that employers can pay a living wage. that's the right policy for our country. and it's the president's commitment to taking care of american workers. i apologize, jim, if things got heated, but you did make some pretty rough insinuations. so thank you. thank you. thank you. and i'll hand it over to sarah. i think that went exactly as planned. i think that was what sarah was hoping would happen. i think that i think that was exactly what we were hoping to have happen. thank you.”