President Barack Obama's admonition at a recent town hall that immigrants should move 'toward assimilation' and learn English has found a welcome audience among conservatives, who are using it to defend President Trump's immigration policy.

Obama made the remarks while speaking to young European leaders at an event for his foundation in Berlin.

'I worry sometimes when, as we think about how to deal with the immigration issue, we think that any moves towards assimilation of the existing newcomers to the existing culture is somehow a betrayal,' the former president said.

'Should we want to encourage newcomers to learn the language of the country they're moving to? Of course,' continued Obama, whose immigration policies earned him critics from both parties. Some Democrats mocked him as 'deporter in chief' for high levels of deportations. But Obama also set up the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to extend status for immigrations who came here illegally as their children. Republicans blasted the move as extralegal.

Conservatives are seizing on comments former President Barack Obama made about immigration in Berlin

'It's not racist to say if you're going to be here then you should learn the language of the country you just arrived at,' said Obama. 'We need to have some sort of common language in which all of us can work and learn and understand each other.'

Conservatives, who have been defending Trump from critics amid a surge of border crossings, his demands to build a wall on the southern border, and chaos in the Homeland Security Department, have pounced on the video.

Conservative commentator Michael Knowles penned a Fox News column where he set up the quotes as if they might have come from another president, such as Trump.

'Does the president's bigotry know no bounds?' he asked, sarcastically, after referencing the quotes on assimilation. 'Since President Trump's election in 2016, Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have opposed all proposals to construct and reinforce fencing along the southern border, he wrote, referencing a past comment by Obama that: 'We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, and unchecked.'

President Barack Obama looks on during a town hall meeting at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) in Berlin, Germany, 06 April 2019

Central Americans, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., protest by the border gate as they wait to cross into Mexico and carry on their journey, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, October 28, 2018. The placard reads "We are not Criminals we are Migrants"

Obama was mocked as 'deporter in chief' by some liberals

Obama, like Trump, faced a crush of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border during his administration.

Fox Host Tucker Carlson also highlighted the comments, from this weekend. 'Assimilation is essential to national cohesion. Immigrants should learn the language. It doesn't sound crazy,' he said.

'More than anything, Americans want secure borders. But they're not getting any of that -- and so resentment is building. And why wouldn't it?' he said.

The effort to use Obama's remarks as a cudgel comes after March numbers showed more than 100,000 illegal border crossings. Meanwhile, Trump fired Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nieslen, the head of the Secret Service, and withdrew the nomination of the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.