Bernie Sanders's fear of immigrant labor is ugly — and wrongheaded

Vox ^ | July 29th, 2015 | by Dylan Matthews

[Mariner]

"Bernie angling for a Donald/Bernie third-party run?"

Uh, no. That would not work for either man.

[Eddie01]

Bernie,

How about we export our Constitution and convert impoverished nations to free republics to eliminate poverty at it’s source?

Eddie

[GoneSalt]

After we return the illegals, how about we just keep those buses rolling and foist a few million of our least desirable members on THEM...

Damn well build a fence!

[WakeUpAndVote]

[dfwgator]

Bernie angling for a Donald/Bernie third-party run?

I'd rather vote for that than for Jeb.

[NativeSon]

An average Nigerian worker can increase his income almost 15-fold just by moving to the United States,

OK but what is the cost of living in the U.S. versus Nigeria? betcha that dollar does a lot farther in Africa...

[Buckeye McFrog]

I think Sanders and Trump agree on this issue.

It’s the open borders elitists running both parties who are having the heartburn.

[dfwgator]

You’d be surprised how expensive a large African city like Lagos can be.

[NativeSon]

been over there? what’s it like

[kabar]

So I was disappointed, if not surprised, at the visceral horror with which Bernie Sanders reacted to the idea when interviewed by my colleague Ezra Klein. "Open borders?" he interjected. "No, that's a Koch brothers proposal." The idea, he argued, is a right-wing scheme meant to flood the US with cheap labor and depress wages for native-born workers. "I think from a moral responsibility, we've got to work with the rest of the industrialized world to address the problems of international poverty," he conceded, "but you don't do that by making people in this country even poorer."

Spot on Bernie. I wish the GOP candidates would be saying the same thing instead of higher walls and wider gates. Legal immigration must be reduced. I guess Bernie must have learned something from his brother who is an MP in the UK.

[dfwgator]

Haven’t been there, but I’ve read about the cost of living in the larger African cities.

[kabar]

With just the one issue of illegal immigration,

No, immigration-legal and illegal- can be a winning issue. Legal immigration is a bigger problem than illegal aliens.

[kabar]

I think Sanders and Trump agree on this issue.

No, Trump wants more legal immigration and increased guest worker programs. Higher walls and wider gates. A disaster.

[PapaBear3625]

From Article: “I’m sure Sanders believes that Nigerian lives and Bangladeshi lives and Haitian lives matter. But if he does, then his views on immigration must change”.

Anyone who thinks the lives of his own family members matter, must, of necessity, decide that the lives of the Third World matter less than the lives of his own people.

[liberalh8ter]

Without borders you have no Country.

[Mariner]

"Trump wants more legal immigration and increased guest worker programs"

Do you have a reference for that contention?

[kabar]

Yes.

[expat2]

You are correct, as long as we don't give him welfare 3x his earnings in Nigeria.

It is sadly inevitable that wages (and standard of living) in the US will go down to get closer to the rest of the world. Many rightly rail at the huge debt that the US is accumulating, but the ugly truth is that, if those debt increases were to stop, the standard-of-living would necessarily going down.
Many who rail do not wish to accept that, but it is true.

[kabar]

During a rally in Arizona in July 2015, Mr. Trump hinted at increasing legal immigration levels if elected President. “They flow in like water, and I love legal immigration. I love it. We should make it easier, and faster.” Source: http://national.suntimes.com/national-world-news/7/72/1454884/carly-fiorina-donald-trump-immigration-common-sense

[Mariner]

He didn’t say anything about increasing immigration of any type.