Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, D-Ill., asked Thursday why Sen. Bernie Sanders has not spoken out on immigration reform in the early stages of his presidential campaign.
Gutiérrez, an open supporter of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid, first failed to remember Sanders’ name before wondering why the Vermont senator hasn’t pushed harder for immigration reform.
“We’ve got the socialist, uh I can’t remember his name. Bernie Sanders,” Gutierrez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, says to Larry King on “PoliticKING” on an interview airing June 16 at 9 p.m. ET. “I don’t know if he likes immigrants because he doesn’t seem to talk about immigrants. But sooner or later, he’ll tell us. I hope he likes immigrants. I haven’t heard him say anything. He’s been kind of quiet and silent.”
“So I hope that when he sees this program, he sees that there’s a lot of people waiting to hear from him,” he added.
Gutiérrez took shots at his Democrat colleagues for staying “quietly by the sidelines” about immigration while they had the Senate majority before 2014. He also took shots at Republicans for attempting to block President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
Though Sanders openly supports Obama’s executive actions, his presidential campaign has only focused on economic issues thus far. On the flip side, Clinton has openly talked about her immigration positions during her campaigning, including her support for a pathway to citizenship.
Gutiérrez is one of the loudest voices on Capitol Hill working for immigration reform.
