Politics

Beto O’Rourke Claims That Strict Immigration Laws Are Essentially The Same As Slavery

Beto O’Rourke started strong in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, commanding a larger fundraising total in his first 24 hours than Sen. Bernie Sanders. But in recently, O’Rourke has started to drift to the left as his base of support moves over to South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that this weekend, Beto O’Rourke drifted even further left on immigration, when he declared that immigration laws that prevent free movement across the border into our country were basically a modern form of slavery.

He was headlining the Center for American Progress’ presidential candidate forum in Las Vegas, Nevada, speaking to a group of mostly far-left Democrats. When asked about immigration, O’Rourke claimed that he believes illegal immigrants are subject to “bondage.”

“[With] Immigration, millions [are] living in the shadows, working some of the toughest jobs, lucky to make a minimum wage. Some not even making that,” he said. “Kept in modern-day bondage, their immigration status used as leverage to keep them down from fully participating in this country’s success.”

The “economy that works too well for the few, but not enough for most Americans,” he concluded.

However, O’Rourke doesn’t appear to have a solution. The closest he has come to a true policy on immigration was earlier in 2019, when he told an MSNBC anchor that he would definetley consider stopping construction and maintenance on the existing border wall, but also that he would work to rip down the existing sections of the southern border wall, opening cities like his hometown of El Paso, Texas, as pass-throughs for border jumpers.

Back in January, O’Rourke was even less settled.

“That’s a problem when you’re like, ‘It will be a wall,’ or ‘It will be this,’ or ‘We can only do it with this,’” O’Rourke claimed during a speaking event at the border. “The genius is we can nonviolently resolve our differences, though I won’t get to my version of perfect or I, working with you, will get to something better than what we have today. … It’s rare that someone’s ever been able to impose their will unilaterally in this country. We don’t want that.”

Back in March, Beto O’Rourke came out strongly against Trump’s administration border policy, comparing the President’s White House to the Third Reich, and President Trump to the Nazis over a comment the President made in 2018 about MS-13 gang members, whom he called “animals:” “Now, I might expect someone to describe another human being as an infestation in the Third Reich. I would not expect that in the United States of America,” O’Rourke said.

Beto seems to be determined to say whatever it’s be best to engage his increasingly dwindling audiences. Although he drew large crowds at the beginning of his campaign, particularly in Iowa, his appearance at the Center for American Progress’ event in Las Vegas drew as little as 200 attendees in a city of thousands of dedicated union workers who mostly vote for a progressive agenda.

He is losing ground, and his efforts to court Democratic voters are getting stranger as his popularity and his poll numbers go down. In addition to a strong immigration policy, Beto now supports reparations, has embraced full gun control, and frequently calls out former President Obama.

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