U.S.-border-wall opponent Hillary Clinton thinks Europe needs to curb immigration.
In an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper published Thursday, the former first lady said that while European nations had stepped up on refugees and immigration, the rise of right-wing populist parties means Europe now has to say it is “not going to be able to continue to provide refuge and support.”
She also suggested that immigration was damaging the body politic by contributing to the election of Donald Trump and Britain leaving the European Union — the latter of which “was largely about immigration,” she specified.
“I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what lit the flame,” Mrs. Clinton said.
“I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches that were taken particularly by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it is fair to say Europe has done its part, and must send a very clear message — ’we are not going to be able to continue provide refuge and support’ — because if we don’t deal with the migration issue, it will continue to roil the body politic,” she said.
Limits on immigration are routinely derided by U.S. liberals and progressives as poorly veiled expressions of racism.
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And while Mrs. Clinton didn’t exactly call for a wall along the Mexico border or directly say what getting a handle on immigration might mean in a U.S. context, when she listed the things that solutions to immigration needn’t involve, she mentioned only domestic political machinations
“The use of immigrants as a political device and as a symbol of government gone wrong, of attacks on one’s heritage, one’s identity, one’s national unity has been very much exploited by the current administration here,” she said.
“There are solutions to migration that do not require clamping down on the press, on your political opponents and trying to suborn the judiciary, or seeking financial and political help from Russia to support your political parties and movements,” she told the Guardian, a left-wing newspaper.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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