Tuesday during a CNN town hall broadcast, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz rejected the notion that the United States should build “walls,” adding that the country “should be building bridges and allow people in.”
Schultz said, “The question about immigration today, for me, is not a question about the wall, it’s not a question about ICE, it’s not even a question about the DREAMers and the 11 to 12 million people who are here unauthorized. It’s a question about humanity. Now, this is a perfect example of why I am here tonight. The vast majority of American people, and I’m talking about 75 percent or so, have been longing for, asking, and demanding an immigration bill that is sensible and that we pass. The Republicans on the far right want to do everything that they can, which I agree, in terms of securing the borders. That’s the right thing to do. The Democrats want to abolish ICE, more or less. The Republicans have put people, children, in cages and stripped mothers from babies. That is not humane. The DREAMers, in my view, in terms of the humanity of the country, should be allowed a pathway to citizenship. And the 11 million to 12 million unauthorized people who are here should get in line in a fair way, pay their back taxes, pay a fee, and bring them in.”
He added, “But the question of humanity is this; everyone in this room, 95 percent of all of us here, are here because our ancestors have come here as immigrants. We are a country of immigrants. The United States of America should not be building walls. We should be building bridges and allow people in. It is the foundation of our society. But we also should do everything we can, at the border, to secure the borders with the best technology available, which we have in this country, and not allow bad people in. But the politics on both sides, the far right and the far left, have used this as a weapon to politicize the situation. When the vast majority of all of Americans want an immigration bill that is sensible.”
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