When Bill Clinton agreed with Republicans on immigration: "We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws."

With the end of the

Title 42

With the end of Title 42, border security has become one of the central issues on the U.S. political agenda. Congress is divided on the issue, as Republicans passed a bill in the House of Representatives that is not very appealing to Democrats in the Senate. Years ago, there was a little more consensus between the two parties on immigration.

The outlook at the southern border is not the most encouraging. Gregg AbbottTexas governor, launched an SOS to his 49 colleagues to help him secure the border with Mexico, while the U.S. and Mexico are in the midst of an economic crisis. forecasts from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) indicate that the number of illegal immigrants who manage to evade controls and enter the country could exceed 13,000 per day.

In this context, a video

viralized a video of former

of former President Bill Clinton talking about immigration, with a position much closer to that of the Republicans. The film dates from the 1995 State of the Union, when, with Al Gore and Newt Gingrich covering his back, the Democrat expressed his concerns about U.S. border security.

Bill Clinton and immigration

"All Americans, not just in the hardest hit states, but everywhere in this country, are rightly concerned about the large number of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they fill could be filled by citizens or legal immigrants. The utilities they use impose burdens on our taxpayers," Clinton began 28 years ago.

"That's why our Administration has acted aggressively to further secure our borders, hiring a record number of new border guards, deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever, cracking down on illegal hiring and banning welfare benefits for illegal aliens," he continued.

At the time, the president was coming off the heels of the 1994 mid-term elections, in which he lost both the House and the Senate. The case of the Lower House was striking, as the GOP managed to flip 54 seats, thus regaining the majority after 42 years.

Clinton expanded the initiative of his predecessor, George H.W. Bush, to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico to reduce drug trafficking. Bush, to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico to reduce drug trafficking. In addition, the enactment of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 authorized more miles of wall and the reinforcement of existing construction.

The legislation, which among other things allowed for the first time civil penalties for illegal border crossers, passed with bipartisan support in both chambers. Even with the vote in favor of current President Joe Biden.

"In the budget I will present to you we will try to do more to speeding up the deportation of illegal aliens arrested for crimesto better identify illegal aliens in the workplace, as recommended by the commission chaired by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan," Clinton continued in the 1995 State of the Union, his second since entering the White House in 1993.

"We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately counterproductive for a nation of immigrants to allow the kind of abuse of our immigration laws that we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it," he concluded.