Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer thinks we don’t need a border fence to have border security these days.

During the now-famous showdown in the Oval Office over border security before the shutdown, Schumer said that “the experts say you can do border security without a wall, which is wasteful and doesn’t solve the problem.”

Except that when the Democratic Party wasn’t so wedded to the idea that a border fence was a terrible idea, they thought it was a pretty good idea — Chuck Schumer included.

Schumer would like us to forget about those days. Thankfully, the Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra remembers.

In a series of clips posted to Twitter, the Senate minority leader can be seen saying that a fence would make us “far more secure” since it was a “significant barrier to illegal immigration.” Oh, and he also thought that using phrases like “undocumented workers” as opposed to, say, “illegal immigrants” wasn’t the best idea.

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That clip came from a 2009 speech at Georgetown University, during which he laid out a series of seven principles to stopping illegal immigration (back when they were big on stopping it, of course).

Chuck Schumer in 2009: -Americans don’t like illegal immigration

-“Illegal immigration is wrong”

-People illegally in the U.S. are “illegal aliens,” not “undocumented”

-Border fence made the southern border “far more secure…created a significant barrier to illegal immigration” pic.twitter.com/zoVyEgdrTC — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 28, 2018

“The first of these seven principles is that illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple,” Schumer told the gathering.

Do you think America needs better border security? Yes No Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use You're logged in to Facebook. Click here to log out. 100% (2293 Votes) 0% (4 Votes)

“When we use phrases like ‘undocumented workers,’ we convey a message to the American people that their government is not serious about combating illegal immigration, which the American people overwhelmingly oppose.”

“People who enter the United States without our permission are illegal aliens, and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who entered the United States legally,” he added. “Any immigration solution must recognize that we must do as much as we can to gain operational control of our borders as soon as possible.”

And then he bragged about helping build a border fence, because of course he did.

“The American people need to know that, because of our efforts in Congress, our border is far more secure today than it was when we began debating comprehensive immigration reform in 2005,” Schumer told the gathering.

“Between 2005 and 2009, a vast amount of progress has been made on our borders and ports of entry.”

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“This progress includes … construction of 630 miles of border fence that create a significant barrier to illegal immigration on our southern land border,” he added.

Oh, and that wasn’t all. Saavedra also included a clip of Schumer calling illegal immigrants “criminals,” which is pretty radical nowadays, especially since “undocumented workers” is even getting close to being too harsh (the current term seems to be “economic migrants.”

Chuck Schumer just a few years ago was calling illegal aliens “criminals,” saying that if someone cared “about America” then they would want “fewer illegal immigrants” pic.twitter.com/jZyohx6lnz — Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 28, 2018

“One of the most effective things we do on the border is turn people back,” Schumer said. “They get up to the border and we find them and say, ‘go home!'”

But I thought that wasn’t effective!

The big difference now, of course, is that Democrats have discovered that demographics is destiny. Imagine an era where Schumer would actually say that Democrats would want “fewer illegal immigrants” just like the rest of America.

How times and language changes when priorities (and presidents) do.

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