Cory Booker: ‘It’s a common-sense thing’ to give illegal immigrants free health care

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Cory Booker declared it’s “common sense” to provide illegal immigrants with taxpayer-funded health care.

Speaking Tuesday on CNN’s “Newsroom,” Mr. Booker argued that not providing free health care to illegal immigrants makes Americans less safe.

“We’ve got to have some common sense here,” he said. “Because 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 it endangers our populations if we don’t have some pathway for people getting some kind of support.”

CNN’s Jim Sciutto pointed out that that the majority of independent voters do not support the idea of footing the bill for health care for non-citizens, asking Mr. Booker whether his stance, which is supported by the majority of 2020 Democratic candidates, is too progressive to win over voters.

“This is not a progressive decision, it’s a common-sense thing,” the former Newark mayor said. “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 to infect others? Do I want kids not to get vaccinated that are in my country?

“That’s why when I was mayor of the city of Newark, I just said when it comes to emergency services, policing services, hospital services — undocumented immigrants here are part of our community, and they have access to those things,” he said. “Let’s not make this a partisan issue. Let’s make it a common-sense issue.”

Mr. Booker made the comments the same day he unveiled an executive action plan on immigration that would create new protections for illegal immigrants, including shutting down “inhumane” detention facilities and expanding protections for “Dreamers” — illegal immigrants who came to the country as minors.