--- title: Donald Trump State of the Union Immigration Ad Lib Was False description: President Donald Trump's ad lib on legal immigration at the State of the Union was at odds with his own Administration's policies. canonical: https://time.com/5522488/state-union-immigration-ad-lib/ author: Abby Vesoulis article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-06T05:44:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:41:47.953Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump's Ad Lib on Immigration Was at Odds With His Policies og:description: He said he wants to see the "largest numbers ever" of legal immigrants og:url: https://time.com/5522488/state-union-immigration-ad-lib/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fa890ee68f9fba2/6989449e7cdbac6a09d5f019/trump-state-of-the-union.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Trump Delivers State Of The Union Address To Joint Session Of Congress og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump's Ad Lib on Immigration Was at Odds With His Policies twitter:description: He said he wants to see the "largest numbers ever" of legal immigrants twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fa890ee68f9fba2/6989449e7cdbac6a09d5f019/trump-state-of-the-union.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump's Ad Lib on Immigration Was at Odds With His Policies  by [Abby Vesoulis](/author/abby-vesoulis/)  ## Abby Vesoulis Feb 6, 2019 5:44 AM CUT  President Donald Trump, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence looking on, delivers the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol Building on Feb. 5, 2019 in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence looking on, delivers the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol Building on Feb. 5, 2019 in Washington, D.C.Pool—Getty Images  by [Abby Vesoulis](/author/abby-vesoulis/)  ## Abby Vesoulis Feb 6, 2019 5:44 AM CUT President Donald Trump loves to throw in little ad libs in his speeches, often throwing out superlatives. He once claimed he’d be “the greatest jobs producer that God ever created” and often calls his 2016 election “one of the greatest of all time.” But when he did that Tuesday night at the State of the Union, he said something at odds with his own Administration’s restrictive immigration policies. In his prepared remarks, Trump was supposed to endorse legal immigration, as opposed to the illegal immigration he hopes a border wall will help reduce. “Legal immigrants enrich our Nation and strengthen our society in countless ways. I want people to come into our country, but they have to come in legally,” his original prepared remarks read. But when he spoke, he added to the statement. “Legal immigrants enrich our nation in countless ways. I want people to come into our country _in the_ _largest numbers ever_,” he told lawmakers, “but they have to come in legally.” To be clear, Trump does not endorse boosting legal immigration. In fact, he’s sought to restrict it even as he’s proposed new ways to limit illegal border crossings. Last year, he promised to end the [diversity visa lottery](https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-updates-trump-tweets-end-diversity-visa-htmlstory.html "undefined") system and slash [family-sponsored immigration](https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-chain-migration-nyc-bombing-suspect-akayed-ullah-2017-12 "undefined"), which he dubbed “chain migration.” The visa lottery “randomly hands out green cards without any regard for skill, merit, or the safety of our people,” he [said](https://www.nbcnews.com/card/fact-check-trump-claims-green-cards-are-given-randomly-without-n843106 "undefined") during his 2018 State of the Union speech. Data shows legal immigration in 2018 was way beneath historical norms. Analyzing data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, [libertarian think-tank CATO](https://www.cato.org/blog/immigration-application-denials-jump-37-percent-under-trump "undefined") found that documented immigrants were more likely to be denied travel documents, work permits and green cards in Fiscal Year 2018 than they were the prior year. The denial rate, according to the analysis, was up 37% since 2016. As President, Trump also limited the number of refugees to be permitted during Fiscal Year 2019 to 30,000 — the lowest cap in decades. Seeking refugee status is a legal protection status intended to protect people fleeing persecution in pre-specified areas of danger. According to a July 2018 analysis of State Department data, the Washington [_Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/how-trump-is-changing-the-face-of-legal-immigration/2018/07/02/477c78b2-65da-11e8-99d2-0d678ec08c2f%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.f64d4a4e2ae6 "undefined") predicted the number of hopeful-migrants receiving visas enabling their permanent moves to the United States was on pace to drop 12% since he took office. Trump supports legal immigration, but his rhetorical flourish aside, he has not sought to bring in the “largest numbers ever” as president. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5522488/state-union-immigration-ad-lib/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5522488/state-union-immigration-ad-lib/"},"headline":"President Trump's Ad Lib on Immigration Was at Odds With His Policies","datePublished":"2019-02-06T05:44:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:41:47.953Z","description":"President Donald Trump's ad lib on legal immigration at the State of the Union was at odds with his own Administration's policies.","url":"https://time.com/5522488/state-union-immigration-ad-lib/","keywords":["state of the union","Immigration","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fa890ee68f9fba2/6989449e7cdbac6a09d5f019/trump-state-of-the-union.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abby Vesoulis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/abby-vesoulis/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fa890ee68f9fba2/6989449e7cdbac6a09d5f019/trump-state-of-the-union.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Delivers State Of The Union Address To Joint Session Of Congress","caption":"President Trump Delivers State Of The Union Address To Joint Session Of Congress","creditText":"Pool—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/state-of-the-union/","name":"state of the union"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5522488/state-union-immigration-ad-lib/","name":"President Trump's Ad Lib on Immigration Was at Odds With His Policies"}}]}] ```