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Senator Bernie Sanders addressed the hot-button topic of immigration for the second day in a row on Thursday, saying at a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event that lower wages were tethered to an influx of immigrants.

Mr. Sanders, the Vermont independent who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, repeated the tenor of comments he made in an interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein that was released on Monday about how wage stagnation was linked to a porous immigration policy.

At the Chamber of Commerce event in Washington, Mr. Sanders said in response to a reporter’s question, “You’ve got to be careful about defining the word, ‘immigrants.’”

The question is whether there should be “a completely open border, so that anybody can come into the United States of America,” the senator said. “If that were to happen, which I strongly disagree with, there is no question in my mind that that would substantially lower wages in this country.”

Mr. Sanders voted against an immigration overhaul bill in 2007. Since then, the issue has gained support among Democrats, who see Hispanics as a fast-growing voting bloc and a key part of President Obama’s coalition. The topic is one of the few areas where Democrats can position themselves to Mr. Sanders’s left.

“I don’t think there’s any presidential candidate, none, who thinks we should open up the borders,” Mr. Sanders said, adding that the percentages of black and Hispanic people searching for work would only become worse in that case.

Mr. Sanders told another reporter that an increase in worker visas, an issue in the most recent efforts at comprehensive change in the immigration system, was not necessary to revamp the nation’s policies. Mr. Sanders favors a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are currently in the country.