Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said during an interview on Thursday in reference to taxpayer-funded government programs that all working illegal aliens should have “access to what everyone else has access to.”
Biden made the remarks during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists during a virtual event.
Asked if he would push to extend government-subsidized healthcare benefits to “undocumented immigrants,” Biden said, “If they are working in the United States of America and they are paying taxes, they should have access to health care. They should have access to what everybody else has access to.”
“This is every undocumented worker?” asked the journalist.
“Not all undocumented workers are working,” Biden replied. “You say on every undocumented worker.”
The presumptive Democratic nominee then went on to say that every person in the country, including all undocumented people, “should have access to a [COVID-19] vaccine if and when it occurs, should have access to testing and treatment and hospitalization, if it relates to the virus.”
Video and transcript below:
JOURNALIST: Mr. Vice President, I’d like to ask you about health care because obviously this pandemic has exposed many weaknesses in health care. In your platform, you’d extend medical benefits to DACA recipients. But what about the workers who have no protection, specifically farm workers, now deemed essential, to make Americans sure that they have food on their table? Should undocumented immigrants also be able to get subsidized health care?
BIDEN: If they are working in the United States of America and they are paying taxes, they should have access to health care. They should have access to what everybody else has access to. The most important thing to do-
JOURNALIST: This is every undocumented worker?
BIDEN: No, it depends. Not all undocumented workers are working. You say on every undocumented worker. Every person in the country, whether they’re undocumented or documented, should have access to a vaccine if and when it occurs, should have access to testing and treatment and hospitalization, if it relates to the virus. That should occur, period. It’s in the interest of everyone that everyone be taken care of, and everyone should be able to be eligible for that.
JOURNALIST: Just to clarify, you are saying that if you are undocumented, you would be able to get a vaccine for free, subsidized?
BIDEN: Yes. Yes.
In a profile piece published last year, then-Daily Wire Editor at Large Josh Hammer wrote the following about Biden’s immigration policies:
Biden voted for the George W. Bush-era Secure Fence Act of 2006, but has also consistently supported amnesty policies throughout his career — including the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 and the failed “Gang of Eight” immigration bill in 2013. Biden served as vice president when Obama issued two major unilateral executive amnesties, DACA in 2012 and DAPA in 2014 — each of which has been fiercely opposed by conservatives and has been challenged in high-profile lawsuits.