Democratic strategist Maya Rupert criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on MS NOW on Monday, saying her recent comments on mass immigration are not helpful to the Democratic Party.
While in Germany for the Munich Security Conference, Clinton participated in a panel titled, “The West–West Divide: What Remains of Common Values.” During the panel, Clinton surprised many of her Republican critics by admitting how much of an issue mass illegal immigration had become during President Biden’s term in office. One of the most widely quoted estimates, including by border czar Tom Homan, is that 10 million illegal immigrants crossed the border during Biden’s term in office.
“It went too far, it’s been disruptive and destabilizing, and it needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don’t torture and kill people and how we’re going to have a strong family structure because it is at the base of civilization,” she added.
Her comments quickly went viral online, but were criticized during a panel on MS NOW’s “Chris Jansing Reports.”
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“Well, I appreciate Secretary Clinton, but I think honestly it is a mistake for Democrats to adopt that sort of positioning,” Rupert said. “And I think really Republican talking points around immigration, I think that it’s not a matter of ‘did it go too far.’ There was a point at which we talked about immigration as a holistic thing, it was a comprehensive system.”
“Republicans were successful in getting us to talk about it only in terms of enforcement, so we’re only talking about deportation,” she continued. “But the fact that we sort of conceded the point that there should be a way for folks who have been living in the country, who are working, who are part of the engine that drives the economy and the fabric of communities, that there should be a way for people to get citizenship, when that conversation went away, that was around the same time we started seeing more chaos around the border. Those things aren’t disconnected.”
She suggested Democrats use the current debate surrounding immigration to “reorient the conversation” and address the issue of illegal immigration “humanely.”
“I think that we make a mistake when we just sort of paint over all of that and focus on who was the biggest deporter, and were they able to do it humanely. That’s not all of our immigration system,” Rupert said.
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Old clips of Clinton and Obama talking about immigration enforcement resurfaced. The one clip that featured Obama, had him defending his deportation and immigration enforcement in 2010.
In a 2008 clip, Clinton appeared to back strong border security and penalties for those who illegally cross the border.
“I think we’ve gotta have tough conditions, tell people to come out of the shadows. If they’ve committed a crime, deport them. No questions asked, they’re gone. If they’ve been working and are law-abiding, we should say, ‘Here are the conditions for you staying. You have to pay a stiff fine because you came here illegally. You have to pay back taxes, and you have to try to learn English. And you have to wait in line,” Clinton said.
