Bernie Sanders: ‘You Don‘t Have a Country Without Borders’; ‘Democrats Have Not Done as Good a Job as They Should, Period, End of Discussion’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
Amanpour: “I want to ask you also because I just heard an interview with a previous presidential candidate and secretary of state, John Kerry, and he was asked about immigration. And Trump has won the war on immigration. At least that‘s how he got elected. I don‘t know about now. And kerry was saying, you need borders. We have passports for a reason. The Democrats screwed up. They let that border be open territory and they‘ve paid for it. Now Trump is pouring, I think, in this new bill, $150 billion into immigration enforcement by giving all this money to ice. So what are you going to do as Democrats to address the legitimate concern about immigration and borders?”

Sanders: “I‘m not a Democrat. I‘m an independent.”

Amanpour: “Yes, I know, but you caucus with them. Yes. Sorry.”

Sanders: “But this is what I do think. Kerry is certainly right that you don‘t have a country without borders. If you have borders, you should enforce that border. Democrats have not done as good a job as they should. Period. End of discussion. That‘s correct. But I will tell you something else. In this country right now, you have millions and millions of people who came from Latin America or wherever, who are working in meatpacking plants. They‘re harvesting crops. They‘ve been in this country for years. They‘re law abiding. They are paying taxes, and they are doing some of the most dangerous, underpaid work in America. So we have to deal with immigration broadly, with comprehensive immigration reform. We have failed in that. Democrats Republicans have failed in that for many, many years. We need right now to come up with some way to protect these workers who are maintaining the economy. Trump wants to throw them all out. Fine. The price of food will double or triple. God knows what will happen to nursing homes in this country. So we need a rational, humane—“