Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s office shot down a proposal tweeted by Republican House member on Tuesday suggesting Capitol Police arrest “any illegal aliens” who attended the president’s State of the Union address.
In a series of tweets from his official account, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar said he asked the Capitol Police “as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions” to “consider checking the identification of all attending the State of the Union address and arresting any illegal aliens in attendance.”
“Additionally Congressman Gosar asked that they arrest those using fraudulent social security numbers and identification to pass through security,” read a second tweet.
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The idea—which was almost certainly a stunt aimed at the dozens of DREAMers who will attend the State of the Union as guests of Democratic members—was quickly rejected by a spokeswoman for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.
“The speaker does not support this,” said spokeswoman AshLee Strong.
Ryan wasn’t alone. His tweets provoked swift condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats:
