Former President Bill Clinton is demanding changes to the law so that the tens of thousands of illegal migrants that have arrived in New York City can “begin working.”
Clinton agreed with calls from New York’s Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday.
The two high-profile Democrats argued that New York City’s “Right to Shelter Law” must be changed.
“Gov. [Kathy] Hochul thinks it should be modified, and it probably should under the circumstances,” Clinton told radio host John Catsimatidis on 77 WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable” show.
“It’s broken,” Clinton said, according to the New York Post.
“We need to fix it.”
The law “doesn’t make any sense,” he added.
The “Right to Shelter” has existed in New York City for over 40 years.
It requires sheltering for the homeless while people apply for permits to work.
“They come here, and we’re supposed to shelter people who can’t get work permits for six months.
“We need to change that,” he said.
He continued by claiming that illegal border crossers have a right to begin “paying their way” and becoming part of American society.
“They ought to work,” Clinton said.
“They need to begin working, paying taxes, and paying their way.
“Most of these people have no interest in being on welfare.”
The former president said that America’s low birth rate requires that the economy be shored up by either “immigrants or machines.”
Clinton also called for more housing to be built to hold migrants.
However, he argues that the homes should be built in a foreign country and funded by American taxpayers.
“We should build more housing just over the Rio Grande, and Mexico, I think, would support that,” he said.
“Keep people there, and let them in as quickly as possible if they are going someplace where we know they can get a job and they’ll be welcome.”
Clinton claimed that the “chaos” around the migrant crisis has been “very beneficial for the Republicans.”
He explains that the GOP allegedly benefits because of the “immigration system that is not well manned and there are not enough facilities along the border.”
The former president, a native Arkansan, weighed in on Democrat political losses in New York.
“But the Democrats lost enough seats in New York because of reaction to the crime problem here and the sense that — we didn’t have — we, my party — didn’t have a good common-sense approach to it,” he said, referring to the migrants.
