Darrell Issa: “As I previously said, more than 12,000 African citizens will be eligible under this today, and more than 1,500 Nigerian…”

“As I previously said, more than 12,000 African citizens will be eligible under this today, and more than 1,500 Nigerian citizens will be eligible under this today. Out of 1 million people who get to come to this country today, it's amazing that a program so fraught with fraud and recognized for fraud would somehow not be the logical place to expand the merit-based opportunity. Mr. Speaker, as a point of personal privilege, I must tell you that I went to college with a lot of people from around the world. They were very diverse, and the grad students were very diverse. I am personally insulted that anyone would use even loosely the term of ``racism'' as part of a statement related to merit-based advanced degrees. I've been at university graduations. The people graduating and walking across the aisle are extremely diverse, and I believe the gentleman needs to go to a few college graduations and see master's and Ph.D. candidates if he is going to refer to this in any way as racist. With that, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick).”