Tuesday on CNN’s “Newsroom,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said it is common sense to give government-funded health care to undocumented immigrants.
Sciutto asked, “Let’s talk about another issue, because this kind of combines two of the biggest issues in the 2020 cycle, both immigration and health care. You, as several of your fellow competitors for the Democratic nomination, support government-funded health care for undocumented immigrants. Now, if we look at the polling, that is supported by a majority of Democratic voters, but Independent voters by a two to one margin, 63%, they say no, of course, most Republicans against it. One, why should people who enter the country illegally get taxpayer-funded supported health care, and are you concerned that as a candidate here in the primaries, you’re staking out such a progressive position that will damage you or another Democratic candidate in the general election?”
Booker said, “It’s a common sense thing. I was the chief executive of a city. Do I want someone who gets sick with a potential communicable illness to not be able to go to a hospital and get treated, to potentially threaten affect others? Do I want kids to not get vaccinated that are in my country? We’ve got to have some common sense here. We may think that shutting off people to access to any kind of health care is some kind of tough stance but really what it does is endangers our populations if we don’t have some pathway for people getting some kind of support. That’s why when I was mayor of the city of Newark, I said when it comes to policing services, hospital services, undocumented immigrants are part of our community, and they have access to those things. We have a president right now that is enforcing things that make us less safe not only in a health care way but in a criminal capacity because now we have an environment where people are afraid to report crimes, because if they come forward because of a program 287 G, they will be subject to deportation. It makes us all less safe. Let’s not make this a partisan issue. Let’s make it a common sense issue.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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