Why are there so many people who want to enter the United States of America and why are there people entering the country illegally every single day?
U.S. Representative Katherine Clark (D-Melrose) listed off a few reasons for that during an immigration roundtable event she hosted on Facebook live on Monday morning.
“Our problems with immigration did not appear suddenly and they can’t be fixed with just a stroke of the pen,” Clark said. “Hundreds of years of imperialism, interventionist foreign policy, and climate change have driven migration patterns beyond our current immigration system’s abilities. That’s why House Democrats have prioritized immigration reform in our work for the people.”
Although Clark railed against interventionist foreign policy in the discussion, she has had no problem taking money from the country’s largest defense contractors over the years — or voting to prevent former President Donald Trump’s administration from withdrawing troops from the Middle East.
Just last December, Clark voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act and to override Trump’s veto of the bill. Clark was one of six Massachusetts Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives to support the bill.
The bill not only set forth a $740 billion military budget, but it may have prolonged the Afghan War.
The bill withholds funding for U.S. troop reduction in the Middle East this year unless either the Pentagon or another agency submits a report on how having fewer U.S. troops in Afghanistan affects national security “and other issues, ” according to Stars and Stripes. This came at a time when the United States had 4,500 troops in Afghanistan. It prevents the president from unilaterally dipping below 4,000 troops and then eventually below 2,000 troops, as Trump wanted.
Each of the six Massachusetts Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who voted for it had something in common: they take money from defense contractor PACs.
Since 2001, the United States has spent more than $6.4 trillion on wars in the Middle East, according to CNBC. That includes more than $2 trillion in Afghanistan. In recent years, the Afghan War has cost the country about $45 billion per year, according to PBS.
The American public largely favors ending the Afghanistan War; 76 percent favor bringing the troops home from the war, according to The National Interest.
