Vice President J.D. Vance entangled himself in yet another controversy involving his views on immigration. In a recent podcast appearance, Vance posed that it is “totally reasonable” for Americans to be angry about their next-door neighbors not being able to speak English.
There has since been a very spirited debate, with Vance himself chipping in. America is a melting pot of different cultures, and has been for the better part of its history — by-products of that history were understandably irate about Vance’s statement. After all, even if the Donald Trump administration wants to make the argument that immigration got misdirected during the Joe Biden administration, there are still some miscalculations in that type of thinking.
You weren’t misquoted, JD.
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) December 8, 2025
The full video is right there, you said it.
A paraphrase didn’t create this backlash.
Your words did.
And you just doubled down on the same quote you claim was dishonest.
For instance, J.D. Vance was making an argument in the interview that immigrants come in with different cultures, share houses because they’re low income, and don’t speak English. But as one user commented on X, Vance’s own family is made up of immigrants with a different culture, even if Vance has already bizarrely expressed how he wished his wife was a Christian. And Vance himself grew up in a low-income household that could have probably been “rowdy,” as he says.
Mr. Vice President, forget about neighbors for immediacy; your own in-laws speak another primary language! Also, for what it's worth, JD, we know you aren't borrowing cups of sugar, but likely inquiring about the materials, dimensions, and availabilities of their couch cushions.
— Farooq Zafar (SF Ali)(@sfali789) December 8, 2025
Finally, the only visa you can legally get in the US without knowing English is a B1/B2 visitor visa. These individuals usually enter the US to visit the world-renowned public parks. Of course, there are exceptions — there are people who got in as asylum seekers, which the administration seems to be fine about if they’re considered white, and there are some world-class athletes like the beloved soccer star Lionel Messi and Canelo Álvarez who are still not comfortable speaking English, and there are some people who perhaps got into the country illegally.
Immigration is complex. There are so many precursors that would ensure an immigrant case will fall into a grey area beyond just a simple matter of a good or bad immigrant. This is why these cases often head to court, where professionals can use their vast understanding of what the law actually says to help them come up with a decision that helps ease some of the anxieties in MAGA.
The reason why so many people in the comments are accusing J.D. Vance of xenophobia is that he is creating a rather simple story about immigrants. In Vance’s world — an immigrant is someone who comes to a neighborhood to cause discord, someone who you can’t relate to, someone who you can’t even have a simple conversation with. In the real world, an immigrant is someone who Vance will start a family with.
Ultimately, immigrants are human beings. Glorifying them as people who are one block of people who cannot cause harm to a community with crimes and anti-social behavior is just as bad as this administration’s blanket condemnation. There are a variety of dynamics that can create a good neighbor, and it goes far beyond their country of birth.
The administration is brushing with broad strokes so that they can fulfill promises they made about mass immigration. In order to remove all these people in a short amount of time without anybody questioning what is happening, they have to dehumanize them by calling them “aliens” or claiming you can’t even communicate with them. As Vance so eloquently put it, the language barrier makes it impossible for him to borrow sugar from them. Oh, he has such hardships in life.
In reality, though, people’s status can only be resolved how it’s always been — using the legal apparatus of the United States of America.
