‘Democrats Have Not Done as Good a Job as They Should’: Bernie Sanders On Border Security
Vermont senator calls for comprehensive immigration reform
In the midst of Donald Trump’s brutal campaign of deporting thousands of immigrants in the United States, one of his most vocal opponents conceded that Democrats have not done a great job of enforcing border security.
And this opponent, Sen Bernie Sanders, is calling for comprehensive immigration reform.
The progressive Vermont independent who twice ran for president as a Democrat was asked about border security and immigration in an appearance on CNN.
The Trump administration has been directing often masked and unidentified federal agents associated with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detaining and deporting thousands of immigrants each day — usually regardless of criminal background or even legal status — without due process.
It’s within this context that Sanders was interviewed over the weekend on CNN and offered a surprisingly hard nosed appraisal.
“ … You don‘t have a country without borders,” he said. “If you have borders, you should enforce that border. Democrats have not done as good a job as they should. Period. End of discussion. That‘s correct.”
The immigrants who the Trump administration are removing have been making important contributions to the economy and the United States, Sanders added.
“In this country right now, you have millions and millions of people who came from Latin America or wherever, who are working in meatpacking plants. They‘re harvesting crops. They‘ve been in this country for years. They‘re law abiding,” he said. “They are paying taxes, and they are doing some of the most dangerous, underpaid work in America. So we have to deal with immigration broadly, with comprehensive immigration reform. We have failed in that. Democrats Republicans have failed in that for many, many years.
“We need right now to come up with some way to protect these workers who are maintaining the economy,” Sanders said. “Trump wants to throw them all out. Fine. The price of food will double or triple. God knows what will happen to nursing homes in this country.”
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