Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), running for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, says she opposes open borders and plans pushed by fellow Democrat candidates that are “essentially open borders.”
During an interview with Dave Rubin, Gabbard said that unlike some of her Democrat colleagues, she opposes open borders and the agenda to invite the world’s migrants to the United States through various incentives.
The interview went as follows:
RUBIN: So immigration, I think there’s a general sense that the candidates, the Democrats are basically trying to outdo each other for open borders, something like that … do you think that’s a fair way to start the question and … where do you sit on that? [Emphasis added]
GABBARD: I think it’s fair … I don’t, I don’t support open borders. Without secure borders, we don’t really have a country. And while some of the other Democratic candidates will say, ‘Well, open borders, that’s a conservative argument and that’s not really what’s being advocated for,’ if you look at some of the practical implications of some of the things they are pushing for, it is essentially open borders. [Emphasis added]
I think there are a few things we got to do when we’re talking about immigration reform. One is we’ve got to have secure borders. This is not Trump’s wall from sea to shining sea. It’s about seeing again what makes sense. I look at things from a practical, objective-oriented standpoint; I’m a soldier. So I look at, secure the borders, what’s our objective. In some places, it may make the most sense to have a wall or some kind of other physical barriers in place; in other places it won’t make sense. So you use technology and you use all the other tools that you have ultimately to accomplish that objective of security at the borders. [Emphasis added]
Gabbard said supporters of mass immigration and open borders should “stand on that platform, make that argument and have your facts” in hand, but that it is not an agenda she supports.
“I don’t believe that’s smart. I think that our country needs secure borders,” Gabbard said.
Throughout the Democrat primary, while candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have sought to decriminalize illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, Gabbard has bucked the open borders lobby, which has a strong foothold within the party establishment.
In a July debate, Gabbard said she opposed providing free college tuition to the roughly 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living across the country.
Reducing legal immigration and stopping illegal immigration has proven effective in raising the wages of American workers and opening job opportunities to the country’s working-class and young people. In California, which has been inundated by immigration over the last four decades, wages have risen by just one percent over 40 years.
Extensive research by economists like George Borjas and analyst Steven Camarota reveals that the country’s current legal immigration system — where more than 1.2 million foreign nationals are admitted every year — burdens U.S. taxpayers and America’s working and middle class while redistributing about $500 billion in wealth every year to major employers and newly arrived immigrants.
Camarota’s research has found that for every one percent increase in the immigrant portion of American workers’ occupations, their weekly wages are cut by about 0.5 percent. This means the average native-born American worker today has his weekly wages reduced by perhaps 8.75 percent.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.