Pete Buttigieg: Illegal Immigrants Have ‘Every Bit of Claim on This Country As the Rest of Us’

Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg repeated his claim Monday that the United States of America belonged to illegal immigrants, just as much the country’s citizens.

At a campaign rally in Utah, Buttigieg said that the so-called “dreamers,” illegal immigrants brought to the country as children, had “every bit a claim on this country as the rest of us.”

He continued in Spanish, which translated to English meant, “We should tell dreamers that we support them, and we understand that this country is your country too.”

Buttigieg has stepped up his use of Spanish and his political support for amnesty and taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants as he tries to place well in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday.

Earlier Monday, Buttigieg told voters in Nevada that the legal immigration system was not allowing enough people into the country.

“This county needs more people than its immigration system is willing to allow,” he said. “So what happens? The people come, but then they are endangered of all of the uncertainties of being undocumented in this country.”