Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was in Iowa this weekend and addressed attendees at the Latino Heritage Festival in Des Moines, Iowa, about immigration reform, campaign finance reform, and Pope Francis’s view on “wealth inequality.” About 100 people came to listen and some brought translation devices reported KCCI.
“He appealed to the world’s leaders to seek a new economic model to help the poor and to shun policies that sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit. That’s Pope Francis,” the Vermont senator reminded supporters. “And essentially what he is saying in so many words is there is something very wrong in this world and I am saying in this country when so few have so much and so many have so little.”
He added, “This country should not lead the world in income and wealth inequality. This country should not lead the world in having the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth.”
Sanders also went after critics of the Senate’s immigration reform plan as well as amnesty critics.
“We have 11 million undocumented people in this country and I am profoundly disgusted by some of the demagoguery and some of the racism, which has been addressed at those people. People can disagree about immigration reform and demagoguery on this issue in the year 2015 is unacceptable,” he said.
He went further saying, “When you have 11 million people undocumented we have got to take them out of the shadows and bring them into the light of day. Give them, right now, legal protection. And we need comprehensive immigration reform which leads toward a path toward citizenship. That is what we have got to do.”
Sanders is expected in Massachusetts this weekend with rally supporters at two different events where he will discuss a range of issues from prescription drug costs to criminal justice reform.