Hillary Clinton distanced herself on Wednesday from her public support for adding to the U.S.’s fence along the southern border, even though she touted her past votes in favor of the security measure as recently as November.
The flip-flop is just the latest in a long list of policy reversals for the Democratic presidential candidate, who is running on a much more progressive platform this election cycle compared to her 2008 White House bid.
At a town hall event in New Hampshire in November, Clinton touted her past votes in favor of building a border “barrier.”
“Look, I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in. And I do think you have to control your borders,” said Clinton, who got in trouble with immigration activists for using the term “illegal immigrants.”
Indeed, Clinton did vote as a senator from New York to fund a border fence as part of comprehensive immigration reform. She also said back then that she was in favor of a fence like the one Israel has on its West Bank.
But while Clinton has at times prioritized a border fence as part of comprehensive immigration reform, her campaign speeches are usually devoid of any mention of tighter security.
Asked on Wednesday by a reporter with Las Vegas’ Fox affiliate whether the U.S. can afford to continue building a border wall, Clinton said “well, I don’t think so.”
“I think it’s particularly challenging for those who are advocating that, to respond to the fact that we’ve spent many hundreds of billions of dollars tightening the border security on our southern border,” she continued, adding that “we do have barriers in a number of places.”
“The terrain is very, very difficult.”
It’s not hard to fathom why Clinton might tout her support for a border fence in New Hampshire but run away from the idea in Nevada. Only three percent of New Hampshire voters are Hispanic, compared to 27 percent of Nevada voters.
Clinton’s border fence shift is not her first immigration policy flip-flop. She has staked out inconsistent positions on whether to provide driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. During her 2008 White House bid, she said she was against the idea. Now, she supports the idea. In 2008, she said that illegal aliens should not be allowed to buy into a universal health care plan she was proposing. Now, she is in favor of allowing illegal aliens to buy into Obamacare.
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