Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » Bernie Sanders and JB Pritzker praise Trump’s border success: ‘You don’t have a country if you don’t have borders’
Sen. Bernie Sanders broke with much of his party in a recent podcast appearance, praising President Donald Trump’s border policy while criticizing President Biden’s handling of immigration.
“So long as we have nation-states, you’ve got to have borders,” Sanders said. “If you don’t have any borders, then you don’t have a nation.”
He went on to argue that securing the U.S. border “ain’t that hard to do,” and declared that “Trump did a better job. I don’t like Trump, you know, but we should have a secure border Biden didn’t do it.”
If you don’t have any borders, then you don’t have a nation, right? In a sense. So has historically, the United States done well on the Democrats and Republicans protecting the border? The answer is no. Trump did a better job. I don’t like Trump. You know, we should have a secure border, and it ain’t that hard to do. Biden didn’t do it. Those before him did not do it. We should have a secure border period.
Bret Baier: What’s the best thing that President Trump has done since being in office?
Pritzker: Well, that’s a good question. I think. Look, one thing I can say is that I asked President Biden, and wrote a very public letter, to deal with some of the problems at the border. We were seeing tens of thousands of people being sent by Governor Abbott to Chicago, and we weren’t getting any help, really, from the federal government.
Here’s what I would say, since President Trump has taken office, we don’t have the problem that existed before with people coming across the board. What I would suggest, though, is there’s one more thing he could have done. He took control of the Congress. He’s got control of the judiciary. He’s got control of the White House. [cross talk] Let’s let’s just say this. He could have proposed comprehensive immigration reform and gotten it passed. He could have done that. He hasn’t done that. Why? Why does he want to send troops in? Why does he want to send ice and CDP in? Why not get immigration reform in place that we can all rally around? Look, I like that. We have borders. We need borders, right? You don’t have a country if you don’t have borders. But let’s deal with immigration with an actual bill that Democrats and Republicans can rally around. We’ve seen it before. It’s been done before, but it’s been 40 years. Let’s finally do it.
* Meanwhile, speaking of Pritzker agreeing with Trump…
Mayor Brandon Johnson urged Gov. JB Pritzker Friday to weigh allowing Chicago public school students to learn from home because ICE agents are arresting parents and students on their way to and from schools.
Pritzker later took a dim view of the idea, saying kids belong in classrooms and pointing to ways schools and residents have already taken steps to protect students and their parents from federal immigration raids. […]
“Remember, very importantly, I think one thing we learned during COVID is that remote learning really has a deleterious effect on kids’ ability to get the kind of education they need. So we’re going to do everything we can to keep kids in school, where they are safer.”
The stepped up ICE activity on the North Side disrupting the school day at Burr Elementary and other schools as multiple arrests played out on nearby streets.
CPS parents and 32nd Ward Alderman Scott Waguespack confirmed a handful of schools in the Bucktown-Wicker Park area were placed on soft lockdown. That meant no outdoor recess, in response to ICE arrests in the neighborhood.
“The kids aren’t playing outside because there’s been a huge amount of ICE presence in the neighborhood, just driving up and down the streets, just kind of terrorizing the neighborhood,” CPS parent Nicole Van Haperbeke said. “Why? It’s a peaceful, beautiful Friday.”
Maria Heavener had opened the windows of her first-grade classroom to let in the unusually warm October breeze when the sound of helicopters, sirens, and a flood of notifications compelled her to slam them shut. During a raid on a nearby grocery store, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had hurled tear gas canisters into a parking lot across the street from Chicago’s Funston Elementary School, spreading a thick, choking smog toward the building while class was in session.
Politicians are going to pander, whatever. If we hired enough judges to process asylum claims in a month instead of multiple years, people would only come if they think they have a good chance of staying. That’s a better way to solve it than slamming the door in everyone’s face.
Opening up more legal paths to immigration would also help. You want to control the inflow, fine, build the process then. And it’s just a fact that immigration is good! More Americans is good! More workers and consumers is good!
You don’t want large numbers of migrants that exist in limbo while their cases are heard, taking up resources, fine. There are so many ways to handle that, that are better for America and better for migrants.
- Charles Edward Cheese - Monday, Oct 27, 25 @ 8:54 am:
I feel like this blurb about Bernie’s border quotes/stance is a little disingenuous without further explanation. Bernie’s motivations and ethos have always been labor centric, so he often generally leans on the side of “strong” borders with the perspective that an unempathetic, unstructured, permeable border is cruel to those seeking refuge because it forces them to accept dangerous conditions and renders these people vulnerable to a punishing/abusive/exploitative and unregulated labor system, and cruel from the perspective that it allows the millionaire/billionaire class to subjugate these desperate people into horrific labor conditions and low wages.
This isn’t the sudden “heel turn” that snippet is trying to make it out to be.
I am not an “open borders” proponent, if that means open borders in the literal sense. I think every country has a right to control their borders as they see fit.
Beyond that, I am in total agreement with what @Perrod posted. We need more not fewer judges and a better process for becoming a US citizen. My wife is a first generation American and a dual citizen. The process for her parents to become citizens was long and expensive. Too long and expensive if you ask me. Up until a few years ago we embraced our melting pot culture and believed in the Statue of Liberty and the words written at her feet.
I second your thoughts. Is is possible at the state level to create the sort of legal system (e.g., more judges and sufficient well trained and eager lawyers) to enhance the functionality of the current system? The federal system is too much at the mercy of the executive and legislative, currently.
- Perrid - Monday, Oct 27, 25 @ 8:35 am:
Politicians are going to pander, whatever. If we hired enough judges to process asylum claims in a month instead of multiple years, people would only come if they think they have a good chance of staying. That’s a better way to solve it than slamming the door in everyone’s face.
Opening up more legal paths to immigration would also help. You want to control the inflow, fine, build the process then. And it’s just a fact that immigration is good! More Americans is good! More workers and consumers is good!
You don’t want large numbers of migrants that exist in limbo while their cases are heard, taking up resources, fine. There are so many ways to handle that, that are better for America and better for migrants.
- Charles Edward Cheese - Monday, Oct 27, 25 @ 8:54 am:
I feel like this blurb about Bernie’s border quotes/stance is a little disingenuous without further explanation. Bernie’s motivations and ethos have always been labor centric, so he often generally leans on the side of “strong” borders with the perspective that an unempathetic, unstructured, permeable border is cruel to those seeking refuge because it forces them to accept dangerous conditions and renders these people vulnerable to a punishing/abusive/exploitative and unregulated labor system, and cruel from the perspective that it allows the millionaire/billionaire class to subjugate these desperate people into horrific labor conditions and low wages.
This isn’t the sudden “heel turn” that snippet is trying to make it out to be.
- JS Mill - Monday, Oct 27, 25 @ 10:31 am:
I am not an “open borders” proponent, if that means open borders in the literal sense. I think every country has a right to control their borders as they see fit.
Beyond that, I am in total agreement with what @Perrod posted. We need more not fewer judges and a better process for becoming a US citizen. My wife is a first generation American and a dual citizen. The process for her parents to become citizens was long and expensive. Too long and expensive if you ask me. Up until a few years ago we embraced our melting pot culture and believed in the Statue of Liberty and the words written at her feet.
- H-W - Monday, Oct 27, 25 @ 10:46 am:
@ Perrid and JS Mill
I second your thoughts. Is is possible at the state level to create the sort of legal system (e.g., more judges and sufficient well trained and eager lawyers) to enhance the functionality of the current system? The federal system is too much at the mercy of the executive and legislative, currently.