On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez defended the proposal of health care for immigrants who entered the United States illegally.

Thursday at the Democratic debate all ten candidates raised their hands when asked if they support health care for undocumented immigrants.

Perez said, “It’s an insurance program, so you got to pay into it. Immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, pay billions of dollars in taxes. That is the reality.”

He continued, “Democrats believe that you should be able to buy into a health insurance system. It is not a handout.”

He added, “I live in a community right now where if you are a pregnant woman and you are undocumented, we provide you with access to health care because we believe that having good prenatal care is an essential health care issue an essential issue of economics and frankly an essential issue of morality. The party of Lincoln is dead, and one of the things that died with it is compassion, and this is not a handout. again, this is allowing people to buy into an insurance program, people who pay billions of dollars in taxes.”

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