Clinton faces backlash from the left after calling mass immigration ‘disruptive’
Democratic strategist Maya Rupert criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on MS NOW on Monday, saying her recent comments on mass immigration are not helpful to the Democratic Party.
While in Germany for the Munich Security Conference, Clinton participated in a panel titled, "The West–West Divide: What Remains of Common Values." During the panel, Clinton surprised many of her Republican critics by admitting how much of an issue mass illegal immigration had become during President Joe Biden's term in office. One of the most widely quoted estimates, including by border czar Tom Homan, is that 10 million illegal immigrants crossed the border during Biden's term in office.
"It went too far, it's been disruptive and destabilizing, and it needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don't torture and kill people and how we're going to have a strong family structure because it is at the base of civilization," she added.
Her comments quickly went viral online, but were criticized during a panel on MS NOW's "Chris Jansing Reports."
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton argued that the Democratic Party had gone too far on the issue of mass immigration, warning it had become disruptive for the country. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
"Well, I appreciate Secretary Clinton, but I think honestly it is a mistake for Democrats to adopt that sort of positioning," Rupert said. "And I think really Republican talking points around immigration, I think that it's not a matter of 'did it go too far.' There was a point at which we talked about immigration as a holistic thing, it was a comprehensive system."
"Republicans were successful in getting us to talk about it only in terms of enforcement, so we're only talking about deportation," she continued. "But the fact that we sort of conceded the point that there should be a way for folks who have been living in the country, who are working, who are part of the engine that drives the economy and the fabric of communities, that there should be a way for people to get citizenship, when that conversation went away, that was around the same time we started seeing more chaos around the border. Those things aren't disconnected."
She suggested Democrats use the current debate surrounding immigration to "reorient the conversation" and address the issue of illegal immigration "humanely."
"I think that we make a mistake when we just sort of paint over all of that and focus on who was the biggest deporter, and were they able to do it humanely. That’s not all of our immigration system," Rupert said.
Past rhetoric from Democrats like former President Barack Obama has become a major talking point amid the larger conversation about how the border and immigration should be enforced. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Old clips of Clinton and Obama talking about immigration enforcement resurfaced. The one clip that featured Obama, had him defending his deportation and immigration enforcement in 2010.
In a 2008 clip, Clinton appeared to back strong border security and penalties for those who illegally cross the border.
"I think we’ve gotta have tough conditions, tell people to come out of the shadows. If they’ve committed a crime, deport them. No questions asked, they’re gone. If they’ve been working and are law-abiding, we should say, ‘Here are the conditions for you staying. You have to pay a stiff fine because you came here illegally. You have to pay back taxes, and you have to try to learn English. And you have to wait in line,'" Clinton said.
Top DHS Special Agent And His Wife Found Dead
A Department of Homeland Security special agent and his wife were found dead in their New Jersey home in what appears to be a murder-suicide, prosecutors said.
Police in Sayreville responded to the couple’s home on Glynn Court around 8 p.m. July 3 and found Kelly Latauro, 46, dead inside the residence, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Her husband, 52-year-old Christopher Latauro, was discovered dead in the backyard.
Both appear to have been shot.
Authorities said Christopher is believed to be the shooter and the case is being investigated as a murder-suicide.
Police told residents to keep away from Glynn Court, from Deerfield Road to Scarlet Drive, briefly because of police activity.
The area was reopened about 40 minutes later, but police remained on scene.
According to NJ101.5, citing DHS records from 2019 and 2020, Christopher was a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
Authorities have not said what may have sparked the violence.
Kelly’s sister-in-law Robyn Perlman-Spencer confirmed her death in a Facebook post on July 7, remembering her in a heartbreaking tribute.
“As many of you may now know, my beautiful sister in law Kelly Iatauro was senselessly and suddenly taken from us on Friday. Kelly was a bright light- kind, thoughtful, hysterical, inappropriate, and just one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. She left a lasting impression on anyone that was lucky enough to know her,” Robyn wrote in part.
Sayreville police confirmed officers responded to the Glynn Court residence on July 3 and found both people dead of gunshot wounds.
The incident is being treated as a murder-suicide, and Christopher is suspected to be the shooter, the spokesperson said.
The Department of Homeland Security and Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to additional requests for comment on the case.
What began as a heavy police response to a deadly scene left two people dead and the quiet Middlesex County neighborhood stunned.
Investigators are still trying to piece together what happened inside the home leading up to the gunfire.
Separately, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made headlines last week with an election-related announcement.
Mullin on Friday said officials who don’t cooperate with the administration’s election security efforts may be slapped with fines — and potentially prison time.
“If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections — and they chose not to — then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said during a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Mullin also promised DHS would work to “speed up our security enhancements” for states.
He vowed to hold up federal election security grants until state officials took steps the administration demanded, including running their voter registration lists through a system that checks for non-citizen voters on the rolls.
Mullin made his comments after President Donald Trump’s primetime address on election security Thursday night, when he repeated already known concerns about the security of voting systems, alleged Chinese efforts to get into voter rolls, and aired old gripes about the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
In his remarks on Friday, the DHS secretary focused on DHS’s work with states to secure election systems and scrub voter registration rolls for fraud and concerns about noncitizen voting.
The Justice Department also sent letters this month threatening prosecution to election officials across the country if they don’t remove noncitizens from their voter rolls.
On Friday, Mullin seemed to suggest that the agency was able to estimate the numbers using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and said 23 states are already working with DHS to analyze voter rolls.
And he criticized the legal challenges that are hindering the administration’s efforts: Last month, a judge blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of information about Americans, including Social Security numbers and citizenship status.
