Booker: Border Crisis ‘a Self-Inflicted Wound’ Both Economically, Morally

During a Thursday interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) described the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border as a “self-inflicted wound.”

Booker called for action to solve the border crisis, which he said is “hurting” America both economically and morally.

“[I] listened to groups that are typically on the right on this, and you have everyone from the business roundtable and The National Chamber of Commerce and others saying the practical impact of allowing immigration, reforming our comprehensive reformation of our immigration system, literally from the food that we eat every single day all the way to the businesses and entrepreneurs that are starting companies in our country, our immigration laws right now are hurting America,” Booker emphasized. “If we had done in 2013, months before I came to the Senate, that comprehensive immigration reform that passed in a bipartisan fashion through the Senate if that was the law of the land, we would have already brought in trillions, no exaggeration, of dollars into our economy.”

“And so, this is a self-inflicted wound, both economically and to our morals and values, to allow this immigration crisis, not just at the border, but what’s happening to DREAMers in our country and their families, to people on temporary protective status,” he added. “They are living in crisis right now. And we need to solve this immigration problem with common sense solutions that the majority of Americans on both sides of the aisle support.”

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