Former President Bill Clinton admitted there is a limit to how many immigrants, legal and illegal, the United States can handle and said some individuals are simply trying to “game” the system.
Clinton’s comments came during a podcast discussion with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
“There is a limit to how many migrants any society can take without severe disruption and assistance, and our system is based much more on an assumption that things would be more normal,” he explained.
Clinton’s remarks come with the background that illegal border crossings this year have topped 2 million officially, a record, and not counting “gotaways.” Things, to say the least, haven’t been “normal” under President Biden.
“It’s an old story, but now you’ve got the largest number of refugees since World War II because of Syria and now Ukraine and other problems,” he added.
Is the economy working for enough people? What can we do about America’s broken refugee-asylum system?
Part 3 of my interview w/ former Pres. @BillClinton: pic.twitter.com/mRcReMwZXr
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) September 18, 2022
RELATED: Flashback: That Time Bill Clinton Used the SOTU to Call Out Illegals As Job-Stealing Lawbreakers
Bill Clinton Says Some Immigrants Are Trying to ‘Game’ the System
Bill Clinton’s remarks came in response to a question by Zakaria about “economic migrants” who are “essentially gaming the system” by using asylum claims to get into the country and profit financially.
“I agree with that,” Clinton replied.
Hmm. That sounds like a man who believes they’re not ‘sending their best.’
Clinton harkened back to immigration of the past when border crossings allowed Mexican immigrants to engage in agricultural work. Back then, he said, it “worked for people.”
Fareed Zakaria @CNN: “The asylum system was set up for people fearing persecution. Isn’t it true that we now have millions of economic migrants gaming the system?”
Bill Clinton: “Yes.”
Looks like Bill Clinton is the last moderate, mainstream Democrat left.
— steve hilton (@SteveHiltonx) September 18, 2022
Still, Clinton managed to criticize Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for their efforts to highlight the border crisis by sending illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities.
He called those efforts “stunts.”
“What’s happening in Venezuela, more than 2 million refugees pouring into first Colombia then nearby countries, has created unprecedented new challenges and meanwhile provides opportunities for stunts like Governor Abbott’s — sending his refugees to someplace that he thinks is advocating for a broad-minded policy that it doesn’t have to live with,” he said.
“DeSantis sending those people to Martha’s Vineyard was amazing,” added Clinton. “That may come back to haunt him a little bit.”
How about @JoeNBC?
““It is grotesque to grab these people, throw them on buses, drive them up to Washington, DC.”
Apparently allowing sexual assault, poor facilities and abuse is ok…BUT A PLANE TRIP TO MARTHA’S VINEYARD IS TOO FAR. https://t.co/6gPxquAH4x
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) September 29, 2022
RELATED: While Activists Sue DeSantis, Border Patrol Has Nabbed 78 People on Terror Watchlist This Year
Clinton In Opposition to His Party On Immigration
Bill Clinton’s comments on there being a “limit” to how much immigration can be sustained in any one country will surely be considered extreme by his own party’s standards.
But he has a history of making comments that would get him tossed out of the party today.
In Clinton’s State of the Union speech in 1995, he cast illegal immigrants essentially as job-stealing lawbreakers. And he noted such a border invasion doesn’t just affect border states – it affects the entire country.
“All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country,” Clinton said.
“The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers.”
Clinton went on to boast of “aggressively” securing our borders, “deporting … criminal aliens,” and stripping welfare benefits from illegal immigrants.
“We are a nation of immigrants,” Clinton concluded. “But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”
POLL: Do you agree with Bill Clinton on immigration?
Odd how his party has insisted on making sure this nation is as far from ‘a nation of laws’ as humanly possible in the more than a quarter century since he made those comments.
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The post How Bad Is It? Even Bill Clinton Says There’s a Limit to How Many Immigrants the US Can Take appeared first on The Political Insider.
