A resurfaced video from 2006 shows 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden calling for a border fence “40 stories high” and punishments for businesses who hire “illegals,” but his 2020 campaign spokesperson said that a fence would “not address the real issues” with illegal immigration.
While speaking to a South Carolinian Rotary Club in 2006, the then-senator — who advocated for giving illegal immigrants in the U.S. free health care earlier this week— touted bucking from his fellow Democrats in the Senate to vote for a measure that would have added “700 miles of fence” to the southern border.
He then declared that “we can build a fence 40 stories high” and that American companies that “hire illegals” should face punishment for doing so:
“But, let me tell you, we can build a fence 40 stories high. Unless you change the dynamic in Mexico and — and you will not like this — and punish American employers who knowingly violate the law when, in fact, they hire illegals. Unless you do those two things, all the rest is window dressing.” – read more