Arnold Schwarzenegger reminded the more left-leaning panelists of “The View” on Tuesday that he is still very much a Republican.
Schwarzenegger, who earned the nickname “Governator” during his 2003 to 2011 tenure as the GOP governor of California, emigrated from Austria to the U.S. in 1968 and became an American citizen in 1983.
Considering his immigrant background, the show’s hosts were eager to ask him about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that sparked protests in Los Angeles and across the country.
Just two minutes into Schwarzenegger’s appearance, co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin wondered how he’d handle the “ongoing crisis” in the state if he were still “governor of California right now.”
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“You have to work together with local government, the state government and the federal government,” Schwarzenegger replied. “You have to work together rather than fighting each other.”
The “Terminator” star went on to emphasize the need for immigration reform.
“For decades now, this country has needed immigration reform,” he said. “Which means that we recognize the fact there’s people in the south of America that want to come north to work, and that we therefore should supply them with enough visas so they can come because we need those workers.”
Schwarzenegger continued, “Then we’d know who is here, we’d be able to get rid of the criminal elements that are here, all this stuff so we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in right now.”
“If you want to make this country better and if you want to improve this country and improve the situations of people’s lives and bring the prices down … you will go and serve the people of America,” he said of politicians on both sides of the aisle. “If you’re a public servant, that’s what you’re supposed to do, and that’s what I would do if I was governor.”
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Co-host Joy Behar then attempted to elicit compassion from Schwarzenegger by asking him, “as an immigrant yourself,” if he had a “visceral reaction” to videos of the unsettling and inhumane ways ICE agents are treating immigrants.
The “Kindergarten Cop” star responded by first saying that he was so “proud and happy” that America embraced him.
“Imagine, I came over here at the age of 21 with absolutely nothing, and then to create a career like that?” he said. “I mean, in no other country in the world could you do that.”
After establishing that he loves America and is a proud immigrant, Schwarzenegger went on to add a caveat: “The key thing also is, at the same time, you gotta do things legal.”
“Those people that are doing illegal things in America and that are foreigners, they are not smart, because when you come to America, you’re a guest, and you have to behave like a guest,” he said.
“When I go to someone’s house and I’m a guest, then I’ll do everything I can to keep things clean and to make my bed and do everything that’s the right thing to do rather than committing a crime or being abusive or something like that,” he said. “That doesn’t really work in this country.”
Schwarzenegger’s remarks seemed to irk some of the show’s panelists.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg, who is good friends with the “Twins” star thanks to their former involvement with the dwindling restaurant chain Planet Hollywood, immediately pushed back.
“Don’t forget, 90% of the people who come here are trying to do the right thing,” Goldberg said. “And a lot of what’s happening right now is people are getting snatched — who shouldn’t be snatched — out of the country.”
Sunny Hostin immediately piggybacked off Goldberg’s remarks, pointing out that “immigrants are much less likely to commit crimes in this country than, actually, American-born citizens.”
A 2024 study that supports Hostin’s claim was removed from the Department of Justice’s website earlier this year, The Independent reported in March after immigration expert David Bier of the Cato Institute pointed it out on X.
The study, which was funded by the National Institute of Justice, examined data from the Texas Department of Public Safety and found that “undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.”
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