Politics

Bill Clinton on Obama’s Amnesty: Borders Are Nets, Not Walls

Patrick Howley Political Reporter
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Former President Bill Clinton said that “borders look more like nets than walls” and stressed global interdependence ahead of President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty announcement.

“So we’re back to the struggle we’re in, the chase,” Clinton said in a speech at The New Republic magazine’s 100th anniversary gala Wednesday night.

“And every citizen, I believe, has an obligation in some form or another to build up the positive and reduce the negative forces of our interdependence, because one thing we do know — and it’s the reason I’m, I’ve been so upset about the shape of this immigration debate in America — is, in a world where borders look more like nets than walls, we are interdependent, whether we like it or not.”

“The president’s going to make his immigration comments tomorrow,” Clinton continued. “As far as I can tell, every governor — every president in the modern era — has issued some executive orders affecting immigration. So I think it, I imagine he’s on pretty firm legal footing.”

“But here’s what I want to say about that. The United States is the best-positioned big country in the world for the next 20 years, positioned. We are younger than every wealthy country but my tiny homeland, Ireland. We are more diverse. We have this thicket of high-tech innovation and great universities. And we are beginning to improve our capacity to train people for jobs that are actually there,” Clinton said.

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