“Undocumented immigrants have no access to government benefits,” declared The Young Turks’ Ana Kasparian during a debate with Ann Coulter at 2017’s Politicon.
Kasparian invited the audience to do a “quick Google search” to confirm her assertion.
The debate was moderated by MSNBC’s Toure Neblett.
Partial transcript below.
KASPARIAN: All it takes is a quick Google search to find that undocumented immigrants have no access to government benefits. In fact, in 1996, Bill Clinton and legislators at the time made it incredibly difficult for immigrants who were in the country legally to have access to government benefits or get government programs. And so, it’s a complete fear-mongering talking point from the Right that people are coming into this country, and they’re mooching off American taxpayers. The only people who are mooching off of American taxpayers right now are oil companies and the wealthiest people.
It’s a great distraction to have Americans look at the little guy and blame them for all their problems, when the wealthiest people in this country are basically raping and pillaging us, right? So, that’s what’s happening.
To go back to Toure’s original question about why people are coming into country; right now, immigration from Mexico, so Mexican immigrants is down. Mexicans are not trying to come into this country the way they were before, mostly because of some of our policies. But more importantly, because their economy is doing better, right? So they have no reason to come here. Economic reasons was the main reason why Mexican immigrants were coming into the U.S.
But, all of a sudden, we’re seeing an increase of people from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador trying to cross the border, first of all, cross the border into Mexico and then cross into the United States, which has become pretty impossible considering the increased border security we have because of the Obama administration.
Now, why are they trying to come in? Well, there have been spikes in violence in those countries. There have been drug traffickers, cartels that have increased violence. You’ve heard about decapitations and all that stuff. Well, there reason they’re so powerful is because of the drug war that [turns to Coulter] you’re very supportive of. We’ve spent one trillion dollars on the War on Drugs since 1971. We’re not only wasting our resources, we’re literally fueling drug cartels in other countries which is upping the ante when it comes to undocumented immigration in the country. So that’s what’s happening. …
COULTER: It is a total lie that illegal immigrants do not get all kinds of government assistance. Please, do Google that. But don’t just look up; any idiot can write on the internet. Look it up. They can get food stamps; they can go into emergency rooms; they get schooling; they get English as a second language; they get the SNAP program. Whoa, they get full health care in California.
It is not saying that illegal immigrants are “the little guy,” they’re not our guys. Americans don’t have a problem paying for our own poor, our own sick, our own injured. But the idea is, we’re like a family. We’re all in this together.
And you say “there but for the grace of God go I,” okay, but this isn’t the entire world we’re talking about. We’re not turning America into the universe’s charity ward. We need to take care of our own, and that’s what’s hurting “the little guy.”
Watch the moment below.
Political observers should note that all children – whether illegally in the country or born to persons illegally in the country – have access to taxpayer-funded primary and secondary education programs. Other taxpayer-funded endeavors such persons consume include but are not limited to:
Commission of crime and consuming taxpayer funds via the criminal justice and prison systems.
Consumption of taxpayer-funded and subsidized operations and products in the form of public transportation and transportation infrastructure.
Identity theft/fraud.
Usage of hospital emergency services.
Usage of municipal emergency and first-responder services.
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Ann Coulter (L) and Ana Kasparian (R) at ‘Ann Coulter vs. Ana Kasparian’ panel during Politicon at Pasadena Convention Center on July 29, 2017 in Pasadena, California.
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