White House senior policy adviser\u00a0Stephen Miller\u00a0found himself clashing with CNN correspondent Jim Acosta at Wednesday’s White House press briefing.<\/p>\n
“What the president is proposing here does not sound like\u00a0it’s in keeping with\u00a0American\u00a0tradition when it comes to immigration. The Statue of Liberty says, \u2018Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,'” Acosta said, quoting from\u00a0the poem\u00a0The New Colossus<\/em>, which was inscribed on the statue after its erection.<\/p>\n “It doesn’t say anything about speaking English or\u00a0be a computer programmer,” Acosta continued. “Aren’t you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant\u00a0coming into this country if you are telling them you have \u00a0to speak English? Can’t\u00a0people learn to speak English when they get here?”<\/p>\n Miller pointed out that English is already a\u00a0requirement of naturalization<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The notion that speaking English wouldn’t be a part of an immigration\u00a0system would actually be very ahistorical,” he said.<\/p>\n Miller further rejected\u00a0Acosta’s reference to the\u00a0Statue of Liberty, noting that the poem Acosta had cited was added later.<\/p>\n Acosta\u00a0and Miller then began to speak loudly over each other, with Acosta accusing Miller of “national park revisionism.”<\/p>\n “The Statue of Liberty has always been a beacon of hope to the world for people to send people to this country, and they’re not always going to speak English, Stephen, they’re not always going to be highly skilled,” Acosta said.<\/p>\n But Miller pointed out that historical immigration levels, from the early to late 20th century, were in conflict with Acosta’s\u00a0criticism.<\/p>\n “If you look at the history of immigration, it’s actually ebbed and flowed,” he said.<\/p>\n “Do you really at CNN not know the difference between green card policy and illegal immigration?” he asked.<\/p>\n Acosta is known for his sometimes\u00a0adversarial relationship<\/a>\u00a0with the White House,\u00a0including<\/a>\u00a0new White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.<\/p>\n