Duncan on Defensive After Comments About Illegal Immigration

Congressman Jeff Duncan is on the defensive today after remarks he made about illegal immigration while answering student questions at Furman University on Tuesday.

“It’s kind of like having a house — and you’re not homeowners, a lot of folks in this room, but your moms and dads are — taking the door off the hinges and allowing any kind of vagrant, or animal, or just somebody that’s hungry, or somebody that wants to do your dishes for you, to come in. And you can’t say, ‘No you can’t come in.’ And you can’t say, ‘No you can’t stay all night.’ Or ‘No you can’t have this benefit, using my deodorant.’ All those things,” Duncan said, according to The Greenville News.

Duncan's spokesman Allen Klump told Patch that the freshman congressman's statement was not intended to compare undocumented immigrants to animals.

“Congressman Duncan was simply saying what South Carolinians already know, that securing our borders is just like securing our homes.  A border with no fence is like a house with no doors, where anyone or anything can come and go as they please," Klump said. "Congressman Duncan believes we have to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws.  As recently as two weeks ago, the Congressman introduced a bill pointing out the need to secure our Southern border from the terrorist threat coming from Iran.”

“It would be both incorrect and extremely unfortunate to assign any other meaning to the Congressman’s remarks.”