Sunday on MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) said President Donald Trump’s immigration policies amid the coronavirus pandemic was an attempt “to stop nonwhite immigration into the United States.”

Host Joy Reid asked, “We have reported that Stephen Miller sees this crisis as an opportunity to install his long-term vision of shutting down much of nonwhite immigration. That is a story very important to Texas, very relevant to Texas. What do you make of the fact there are people in the White House who see this as an opportunity to keep more brown people out of the United States?”

O’Rourke said, “You’re absolutely right about this being part and parcel of a much larger trend and a much more encompassing effort on the part of the Trump Administration to stop nonwhite immigration into the United States. We know from the leaked phone call transcript, reported by The Washington Post, that this is not just a 60-day order as we were led to believe by the president. This is part of a long-term plan to stop immigration.”

He added, “Really important for us at this moment to remember that a quarter of those who are working in our clinics, in our hospitals right now, were born in another country. If your life is saved during this pandemic, good chance, an immigrant saved your life. At a time of increasing food insecurity, nearly 80% of the people working in the fields, those when our restaurants reopen working in the kitchens, born in another country.”

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