Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton once said that she wants to “keep track” of all the illegal immigrants in the United States, to prevent terrorist attacks.
Speaking at an Iowa town hall during her previous presidential campaign in November 2007, Clinton pitched an idea similar to a database for illegals to stop another potential terrorist attack like 9/11.
Clinton’s statement, made years before Republican candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson drew fire for supposedly favoring a database of some kind to track possible terrorists, further confuses Clinton’s immigration stance as it applies to national security concerns.
“So what are our options? I think you’re not going to be able to get people to come out of the shadows if you say if they come out of the shadows then you’re going to deport them. And so therefore you’ve got to give them some sanctions, penalties, fines, but bring them out so we know who’s here,” Clinton said then.
“I feel really strongly about this because, you know, some of those hijackers who flew those planes into the World Trade Center, they came here legally and they overstayed so they were here illegally and we didn’t have a clue. I want to know who’s in this country. I want to keep track of them,” Clinton said.
So bring them out of the shadows. If they ever committed a crime, either in the country they came from or in this country, deport them immediately no questions asked. If they’ve been here and been lawful, then I think they’ve got to pay fines, they’ve got to pay back taxes, they’ve got to try to learn English, and they’ve got to wait in line, they can’t get ahead of anybody else who’s been here legally and waited. And they have to stay out of trouble, and keep working, and be law-abiding, and maybe in ten or fifteen years they can get legalization.
The Clinton campaign did not immediately return a request for comment as to whether Clinton still holds this policy position in 2015.
(WATCH AT THE 5:40 MARK IN THIS VIDEO)