6 times top Democrats warned against illegal immigration, called for deportations

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, February 05, 2026

5. Nancy Pelosi: 'Deporting felons, not families'

When she was House minority leader in 2013, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized the Obama administration for the pace of its deportations, but still called for criminal illegal immigrants to be deported.

"Our view of the law is, if somebody is here without sufficient documentation, that is not [a] reason for deportation. If someone has broken the law or committed a felony or something, that is a different story," she said during an interview with Telemundo that year.

"When most people are apprehended, they are deported," she continued. "I don't see any reason for these deportations."

Immigrant advocacy groups estimated at the time that the Obama administration was deporting approximately 1,100 illegal immigrants every day, according to Politico.

In a 2014 speech on the House floor, Pelosi expressed support for Obama's executive actions aimed at "securing our borders, deporting felons, not families, requiring undocumented immigrants to pass a criminal background check and pay taxes."

In a speech in 2005, Pelosi said lawmakers should take immigration issues "seriously" and claimed Democrats "support strong border control."

Nancy Pelosi said border enforcement had to be the first step of immigration reform.

She warned America couldn’t be the welfare system for Mexico.

Competition for jobs.
Competition for housing.
Competition for classrooms.

Her words. Not ours. pic.twitter.com/z0m9Z7rmJ3

— Unchained Media (@_unchainedmedia) January 30, 2026

Pelosi, who will be retiring next year after 38 years in Congress, has more recently characterized the recent fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti as assassinations, and in October she suggested that local law enforcement in California could arrest federal immigration agents.