RUSH: This is Arturo in Las Vegas. Great to have you. I’m glad you waited. And welcome to the program.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. How you doing?

RUSH: I’m good, sir. Thank you.

CALLER: Well, just to let you know I’m a longtime listener. I used to live in Southern California, Orange County, and used to listen to you back then. That was probably about 13 years ago.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: I want to thank you for clarifying some stuff when it comes to the Constitution and stuff like that.

RUSH: I appreciate that, Arturo. Thank you very much.

CALLER: It’s gonna come as amazing for you. Um, I am an illegal immigrant. I do believe —

RUSH: No. No, no. Arturo? Arturo, you’re not.

CALLER: Ha-ha. I am. I am. I’m an undocumented immigrant.

RUSH: Not anymore.

CALLER: Well, listen, listen, listen. I want you to listen to me. Seventy percent of the stuff that you say on the radio, I believe. It doesn’t automatically make me a Democrat.

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: You know?

RUSH: I got you.

CALLER: Seventy percent of the Latino community is a conservative community. The reason they are turning on… I’m gonna say this way. The reason they’re turning on Republicans, is for the fact that there hasn’t been something that connects them to Republican Party in a way that they’re being helped. Myself, I’m gonna tell you my story. I’m gonna open up to you on the radio.

I arrived in this country when I was eight years old. I was told we’re coming in to come to Disneyland. We ended up staying. That was… I’m 32 right now. That was a couple years ago (chuckles), and throughout those years I found out I wasn’t allowed in this country. At the age of 15 when I applied at McDonald’s, the manager told me, “You need a social. Bring it tomorrow.”

I went to my mother, said, “Mom, they asked me for a social. What is that?” She just put her head down and she told me, “We’re illegal immigrants here.” I was like, “What is that?” She explained what an illegal immigrant was. Back then, we had the 187 in California. I got into knowing what the 187 was all about. I was pretty saddened that kids in my school were bullying me for the fact that I was an illegal immigrant.

Now, I’ve been paying taxes. I have a business. My wife, she arrived here when she was five-year-old. We have three US-citizen kids. I always ask the Republicans, “What about me?” What happens to me, Rush? I mean, you guys are dogging Obama for targeting — and I do agree. I disagree with the fact that Obama said, you know, “Parents of US citizens that arrive here five years ago.” No, I say, 15 years ago, because we are the ones who are missing out. I miss the deadline for three months. I turned 31 in April. The stipulation was you turn 31 in June. I missed it. You know what it is?

RUSH: I know where you’re going. Let me answer your question, Arturo. I’m gonna assume here that I’m speaking for a majority of people in this audience. We are not opposed to things normalizing for you, but we have a problem first.

CALLER: Mmm-hmm?

RUSH: We have got to stop the influx of people like you 15 years ago. We have to shut down the border. We cannot absorb any more, and we don’t want any more circumstances like the one you found yourself in. We want people coming to the country legally becoming citizens –

CALLER: Mmm-hmm.

RUSH: — learning what it is to be an American, learning to love America, learning to love and appreciate American culture, as you obviously do. We want everybody like you who wants to come here to come here and do so in a legal way. Everybody is more than happy to deal with the unfortunate circumstances of your reality, but we have got to shut down the border first and stop the influx! If we don’t do that, we’re gonna be flooded and we’re not gonna be able to handle assimilation.

CALLER: I understand.

RUSH: We’re not gonna be able to handle circumstances like you in other people and we’re gonna be overrun, and it’s not gonna be good for anybody.

CALLER: I understand.

RUSH: And the thing that Obama is not doing is that. And the Democrat Party is not doing that. You don’t have a problem with anybody in the Republican Party if you could just secure the border first and then we will deal with these situations such as yours. Nobody wants to kick you out of the country.

CALLER: No, here’s the thing. My situation is, why doesn’t the Republican Party, say, “You know what? Obama, here’s our immigration deal. We are going to secure the border. We’re going to militarize the border.” In a way, I do agree with that —

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on a minute. Why doesn’t the Republican Party say what?

CALLER: We’re gonna submit a bill where we’re gonna militarize the border, shut it down, like you say, close it off. I agree with that.

RUSH: Arturo, the Democrat Party doesn’t want to do that, and the Democrat Party’s running the country right now. The Democrat Party doesn’t want to shut down the border. The Democrat Party doesn’t want a border per se. The Democrat Party wants as many people flooding the Southern border as they can get, and they want them on the welfare rolls. They want them in the welfare state. The Democrat Party wants people coming to this country forever dependent on them and the United States government.

You are not a target of the Democrat Party. You’re self-reliant. You come here. You get a job. You want to become a citizen, You want to take care of yourself. The Democrat Party’s not interested in you. No matter what they say, Arturo, they are interested in people who are not able to take care of themselves. They don’t want to shut down the border. The Republicans have been talking border security for as long as I’ve been alive. 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli, three million were given amnesty on the condition the border would be shut down. It was not.

Ronald Reagan was lied to. Arturo, let me give you a little stat that you may not know. From 1924 to 1968 or ’70 or something, there was no immigration. For like 70 years, 60, we shut it down. There was no legal immigration. You know why? Because of all of the immigration that had occurred after World War I and World War II, all during the twenties, thirties, and forties, we had to assimilate those people. They had to get into the country. They had to prove they were healthy. They had to go through that process. They established communities. We had to make sure we had jobs, that the economy was growing. We took the time and they became Americans.

It wasn’t until Ted Kennedy went nuts in the sixties that we started opening the floodgates again, and that was to provide a permanent underclass for the Democrat Party. And that’s where we are since then. Ted Kennedy started this, and the Democrat Party has kept it going, and all anybody on my side has ever said is we have got to shut down and secure the border, and then deal with the people in the shadows, people like you. Nobody wants to kick you out of the country. Nobody wants to kick your kids out of the country and separate your family. Don’t believe anybody telling you that.

That’s not what the Republican Party wants. The Republican Party wants you to become an American. They want you to love this country. They want your kids to grow up American. They want them to love the country. We want everybody that gets here legally to experience and make this country work. But you’re being lied to by a bunch of politicians and the media who are giving you an incorrect impression of the Republicans. And the Republicans, frankly, don’t know what to do about it, so they’re trying to kiss your ass to make you think they’re not such bad guys. But there isn’t a one of them that wants to kick you out and send you back home.