Republican presidential candidate and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that the United States should "insist" legal immigrants "adopt our values."
ABC host Martha Raddatz asked Jindal if he, born to legal immigrant parents, was troubled by the "derogatory things" other GOP candidates have said.
The term "anchor babies" to refer to children who are automatically granted citizenship despite the citizenship status of their parents has been used by some presidential candidates, including Donald Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Jindal himself said last week that he was also "happy to use" the term.
On Sunday, Jindal told Raddatz that his parents have never taken the United States for granted.
"And I think this election is largely about the idea -- the idea of America is slipping away in front of us. When it comes to immigration policy, what I’ve experienced and seen is that a smart immigration policy makes our country stronger; a dumb one makes us weaker. We’ve got a dumb one today," Jindal said.
"Yes, we need to secure our border. Stop talking about it," he continued. "I think we need to insist that folks who come here come here legally, learn English, adopt our values, roll up our sleeves and get to work."
Raddatz interrupted Jindal and asked him to clarify what the difference was between "American values" and those of immigrants.
"Look, what I worry about is you look to Europe, the contrast is -- you’ve got second, third generation immigrants that don’t consider themselves part of those societies, those cultures," Jindal said. "We in our country shouldn’t be giving freedoms to people who want to undermine the freedom for other people. I think we need to move away from hyphenated Americans. We’re not African-Americans or Asian-Americans, Indian-Americans, rich or poor Americans: we’re all Americans."
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