HOLIDAY/IMMIGRATION/MIKE PENCE: “Vice President Mike Pence hosted a reception celebrating Cinco de Mayo in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, an event traditionally attended by the President.
In brief remarks, Pence brought greetings from President Donald Trump and praised Mexican-American and Hispanic-American communities as ‘one of the most vibrant threads in our national fabric,’ specifically addressing immigration.
‘We are, as the saying goes, with a few exceptions, a nation of immigrants, and that’s as true today as it was at the hour of America’s birth,’ Pence told a room of invited guests, including members of the Hispanic community, Mexican Ambassador Gerónimo Gutierrez and Labor Secretary Alex Acosta…
Gutierrez subtly referenced US-Mexican tension with a message for the vice president and guests assembled.
‘True friendship, they say, must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity to be worthy of its name,’ he said. ‘May this Cinco de Mayo remind us all, as Presidents Benito Juarez and Abraham Lincoln foresaw, that strong and successful Mexico is in the interest of the United States, as much as a strong and successful United State is in the interest of Mexico.’ “
-Betsy Klein, “Pence talks immigration at Cinco de Mayo celebration,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 4, 2017 7:05pm