Subject: Re: FYI: HRC statement on the border in NH
From: Betsaida Alcantara <[email-masked]>
To: Maya Harris <[email-masked]>
Cc: Sara Solow <[email-masked]>, Mandy Grunwald <[email-masked]>, Jake Sullivan <[email-masked]>, Kristina Costa <[email-masked]>, Kristina Schake <[email-masked]>, Jennifer Palmieri <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Brian Fallon <[email-masked]>, Lorella Praeli <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2016 14:26:24 -0800

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Immigration going to be a big issue in this campaign?

In the past, you've said that undocumented immigrants would not be covered
by your health care proposals. Here's an exchange we had in 2007.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Would illegal immigrants be covered under your plan?

CLINTON: Illegal immigrants would not be covered. No. They would not be
covered. I will continue to have a safety net, which I think is in the best
traditions of our country and also for public health reasons absolutely
necessary.

But we did not cover them in '93, '94 and my plan does not cover them now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Now you say that undocumented immigrants should be
able to buy into the exchanges. So why the shift?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, because number one the kind of plan that was passed
in the Affordable Care Act gives you a market-based way of getting into the
insurance market. So, if you can afford to buy a policy, you can. You don't
get, however, any of the subsidies that American citizens get.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Martin O'Malley says they should. Why not?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I disagree with him. I think part of comprehensive
immigration reform should be looking at all of these issues. But as things
stand right now, under the Affordable Care Act, if you have the money and
you are undocumented, you can buy into it, but without the subsidies.
That's why it's important we continue to support community health centers,
we continue to support our hospitals because those are often the places
that undocumented people and poor people go.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And what's the reason for not going further?

HILLARY CLINTON: Because I don't think legally you can. I mean, that is not
something that we can legally support. The law is very clear about that.

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 17, 2016, at 1:22 PM, Maya Harris <[email-masked]> wrote:

were you able to find the comments she made about health care on the Sunday
morning program (I think it was This Week)?

On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 3:53 PM, Sara Solow <[email-masked]>
wrote:

> Here is what she said in Windham on Nov. 10.  It does express support for
> continued border security -- today.  But I think we can use the answer
> we've prepped, and which you'll see soon, which says:  we don't need more
> walls;  we've invested a ton in this and the border is more secure than in
> years;  it's time to focus on CIR.
>
>
> QUESTION:  Hi.  Hi, Secretary Clinton.  I was wondering what you think
> about, like, securing the Mexican border with some of the illegal
> immigrants that come in.  Just wondering.
>
> HILLARY CLINTON:  Well, look, I voted numerous times when I was a senator
> to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from
> coming in, and I do think you have to control your borders.  But I think
> that it’s also true that we need to do more to try to, number one, deal
> with the people who are already here, many of whom have been here for
> decades, because it is just never going to happen that we’re going to
> round up and deport 11 or 12 million people.  I don’t care how tall the
> wall is or how big the door is, that is never going to happen.
> (Applause.)  And I think it is an unnecessarily provocative thing to say.
> We need to secure our borders; I’m for it, I voted for it, I believe in
> it.  And we also need to deal with the families, the workers who are here,
> who have made contributions, and their children.  And we – Mexican
> immigration no longer is really the issue.  The Mexican economy is doing
> well enough, we’ve had no net Mexican immigration in the last several
> years.  We now get immigrants from Central America and Latin America, and a
> lot of them make a very dangerous trip with smugglers and traffickers to
> try to get into our country, and we need to do more to try to put some
> resources into those countries to try to deal with some of the conditions,
> particularly the violence, the drug dealers and the like that create that.
>
> And we have an example of how effective the United States can be.  When my
> husband was President, as you remember, there was a war going on in
> Colombia by drug traffickers and insurgent rebels.  It was such a violent
> war that elected officials, business leaders, academics were being
> kidnapped, many of them murdered, otherwise held for ransom.  And we did
> something called Plan Colombia, where we helped the government figure out
> how to secure their country from drug traffickers and rebels, and it took a
> number of years, but now it’s a success story.
>
> So we can do more to stop the problem from where it starts.  We can do
> more to secure our border.  And we should do more to deal with the 11 or 12
> million people who are here, get them out of the shadows because we will
> have a better economic outcome if we do that.  Because what happens now
> is if you’re undocumented you will work for as little as you can be paid,
> and that influences the labor market and takes away jobs from Americans
> because there’s no even playing field.  If we get them out of the shadows
> and we enforce the labor laws, we will see a much better labor market for
> Americans and we will also see much more contribution into the Social
> Security and Medicare system as well as the taxes.  I mean, right now we
> know that undocumented workers pay into the Social Security system many
> billions of dollars, but it could be even more.
>
> So yeah, we have to do all of that.  And to talk about just one piece of
> it I think is misleading and doesn’t help us get to where we can solve the
> problems that we face.  (Applause.)
>