WATCH: Buttigieg Believes He Has Diagnosed America's Illegal Immigration Problem

Beth Baumann | February 01, 2020 4:45 PM

Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg believes that illegal immigration is a problem that needs to be dealt with but his way of tackling the issue is anything but practical.

During a campaign event, Buttigieg said the "border needs to be dealt with in a way that makes sense," specifically referencing a pathway to citizenship.

"So that pathway to citizenship is also a pathway to a stronger, safer economy and life for so many people," the Democratic presidential candidate explained. "Remember: we have 11 million undocumented immigrants. That's because our economy needed 11 million more people than our system was prepared to admit."

"Another thing we gotta do when we do that reform is set up so in the future you can review every couple years how many work-based visas we need to keep to keep our economy going, instead of it literally taking an act of Congress to change these quotas and country caps that are set in stone," Buttigieg said. "So I'd create that too, a kind of safety valve, where there's an administrative review every couple years and doesn't require you change the entire law."

The former South Bend mayor said he wanted to have a way of addressing the on-going immigration crisis to keep it from building up again over time.

"You don't want to fix it once and then allow the problem to build up again and have that many more people in mixed-status families and communities so vulnerable in the future," Buttigieg said. "We have such stress and pressure on people who are trying to do all the right things, who are indispensable in our economy, especially in our rural communities. And yet the system can't find a way to get it right."

Buttigieg should really go to places along the United States-Mexico border and talk to Americans who were there when the recession hit in 2008. People were being laid off left and right and you know what happened? They were being replaced by illegal aliens. Why would a business want to pay more for an American citizen when they could pay an illegal alien under the table at half or even a third of the cost?

Granting a pathway to citizenship doesn't suddenly fix the immigration system. If anything, it encourages other people to come here. If these people were truly trying to "do all the right things" they would apply to come to the United States legally. They would wait their turn. The fact that they're breaking the law when they cross the border and enter our country seems to be a fact Buttigieg can't fathom.