Former President Bill Clinton (D) told CNN this week that there was a limit to how many migrants the U.S. can take in before the country experiences a severe disruption which flies in the face of what other Democrats have advocated for.
Clinton’s remarks come after U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained 203,598 immigrants who entered the United States from Mexico in August. If that rate of illegal immigration continues, over 2.3 million arrests would have been made between the end of September 2021 and September 2022, according to The Washington Post.
Clinton told podcast host 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.”
Clinton’s remarks come after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) claimed that the U.S., which is tens of trillions of dollars in debt, “is the wealthiest nation in the world and we have more than enough to care for everyone.”
Clinton noted that the immigration challenges the U.S. faces now are drastically different than how the situation was when he was growing up.
“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 said.
Clinton also made sure to attack Republican governors for shipping illegal immigrants to deep-blue sanctuary cities throughout the country that only have to deal with a fraction of what Republican areas in the south have to deal with.
“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 Gov. Abbott’s — sending his refugees to some place that he thinks is advocating for a broad-minded policy that it doesn’t have to live with,” Clinton said.
The former impeached president claimed that DeSantis sending illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard “may come back to haunt him a little bit.”
DeSantis has strongly pushed back against any claims that the illegal immigrants were tricked into going to Martha’s Vineyard after Democrats falsely accused him of engaging in kidnapping and human trafficking.
“I think if you look, the folks that are contracted, not only do they give them a release form to sign, they actually give them a packet and in that packet included a map of Martha’s Vineyard,” DeSantis said. “So it was obvious that that’s where they were going and they gave that to them.”
“And here’s the thing, it’s all voluntary, because it’s just the type of thing where we think that’s the right way to do it,” DeSantis continued. “I mean, I think that if the states could send, I would send back to Mexico or back to the home country. But here we are doing it voluntarily, they sign a release, and then they get a packet. So they did get a packet that had the map of Martha’s Vineyard. And they’re also treated, you know very well with all this, I mean, they’re treated well with meals and everything.”
“What’s not humane, is what Biden is doing, he’s given a false promise, the border’s open, luring people to come here for political purposes, and then basically cutting these people loose and leaving them high and dry,” DeSantis continued. “What he should say is, ‘our border’s not open. You know, there’s ways to apply to come to this country, but just simply barreling across the border is not one of them.’ And I think you can trace all this back to him coming to office and reversing President Trump’s policies, not because Trump’s policies were wrong, it was all just a big virtue signal, because they don’t like Trump. So they have to do everything the opposite of him.”