Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg called out Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar on her immigration record during Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, reminding her of her past votes in Congress.
Near the end of Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, Klobuchar spoke on her support of “Dreamers,” young undocumented immigrants who are enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Democratic senator said the best way to preserve the program, which has been targeted under the Trump administration, was to win in November.
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“The best way to protect the ‘Dreamers’ is to have a new president. There are the votes there to protect the ‘Dreamers,’ and I have been working on this since I got to the United States Senate,” Klobuchar said.
“In my first campaign, I actually had a bunch of ads run against me because I was standing up for immigrants,” she added and then spoke about the need to pass immigration reform for the country’s illegal alien population.
Buttigeg, however, reminded Klobuchar of her past voting record.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar is at the Democratic presidential primary debate in Los Angeles, California on Dec. 19, 2019. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“If you’re going to run based on your record of voting in Washington, then you have to own those votes — especially when it comes to immigration,” the former mayor said. “You voted to confirm the head of Customs and Border Protection under [President Donald] Trump, who is one of the architects of the family separation policy.”
“You voted to make English the national language. Do you know the message that sends in as multilingual a state as Nevada to immigrants?” he said.
“You have been unusual among Democrats, I think the Democrat among all of the senators running for president, most likely to vote for Donald Trump’s judges, who we know are especially hostile to ‘Dreamers’ and to the rights of immigrants,” Buttigieg continued, adding what he did as mayor of South Bend. (RELATED: Former ICE Chief Reacts To 2020 Democrats’ ‘Flip-Flop’ On Immigration)
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This isn’t the first time Klobuchar’s past voting has come back to haunt her. Unearthed footage of her during a 2006 Senate debate showed her calling for “order at the border,” including a border fence. The then-Senate candidate also derided the fact that illegal aliens were entering the U.S. while legal migrants had to wait in line.
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