U.S. Border Control

Hillary’s chief strategist calls illegals “the most powerful political force in the country”

October 11, 2007

Mark Penn, the chief strategist for Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, told a British magazine that illegal immigrants “may be the most powerful political force in the country.”

In an interview with The Spectator magazine, Penn said, “The most powerful political force in [America], and the most important voting bloc in the upcoming elections, may not even be able to vote — but their cousins can. And that may make all the difference.'

Interviewer Matthew d’Ancona noted that Penn believes that illegal immigrants “could determine the next presidential election because their grievances will encourage their legally settled relatives to register and vote.”

Penn’s candidate, Hillary Clinton, has courted this illegal aliens since the beginning of her campaign. In a recent interview with Hispanic Trending, Clinton said, “when I’m President, I will work to pass immigration reform that honors our history as both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws, and that includes a path to legalization.”

As a senator, Clinton has denounced past efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.

In 2006, she criticized a House Republican bill that would have imposed harsher penalties for undocumented workers, charging that some Republicans were trying to create a “police state” to round up illegal immigrants. She later charged that the bill would “criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself,” using that line again in a debate sponsored by the Spanish-language channel Univision in September.

In that debate, she said, “[the issue] is being demagogued, and I believe that it is being used to bash immigrants, and that must stop. The Republican candidates need to understand that they are doing a great disservice to our country.” A spokesman for Clinton told the New York Times after the debate that she was referring to the CNN anchor Lou Dobbs and the radio host Rush Limbaugh, among others.

She also said she supports “border security” and “in some cases a physical border.”