Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this week that mass migration has “gone too far” and acknowledged that it has been “disruptive and destabilizing,” marking a notable shift in tone from her more recent comments on the issue.
Clinton made the remarks during a panel titled “The West–West Divide: What Remains of Common Values” at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. She said there is a legitimate need to debate migration policy and called for borders that are secure while also describing enforcement as needing to be humane.
“There is a legitimate reason to have a debate about things like migration,” Clinton said. “It went too far, it’s been disruptive and destabilizing, and it needs to be fixed in a humane way with secure borders that don’t torture and kill people.”
Her comments stand in contrast to statements she made in recent years emphasizing the economic benefits of immigration. Speaking last year at the Newmark Civic Life Series in Manhattan, Clinton argued that immigration helped strengthen the U.S. economy by replenishing the workforce, including through both legal and undocumented migration.
In 2018, Clinton sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies, particularly family separation at the border. “It is now the official policy of the U.S. government — a nation of immigrants — to separate children from their families,” she wrote at the time. “That is an absolute disgrace.”
During her 2016 presidential campaign, Clinton opposed expanding a border wall and supported executive actions under former President Barack Obama that deferred enforcement against millions of illegal immigrants. Her platform also included proposals to broaden access to healthcare, including expanding provisions of the Affordable Care Act regardless of immigration status.
Earlier in her career, however, Clinton took a more restrictive tone. In a 1993 congressional hearing, she argued that comprehensive health care benefits should not be extended to undocumented immigrants, warning that doing so could encourage more illegal immigration.
Her latest remarks in Munich reflect a renewed emphasis on border security and acknowledgment of public concerns over large-scale migration. Taken together, Clinton’s record illustrates how her public stance on immigration has evolved over time, at different moments highlighting enforcement, humanitarian considerations, or economic arguments depending on the political climate.
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