Flashback: Joe Biden criticized amnesty, said immigrants should learn English in resurfaced video

Joe Biden’s past comments on immigration are coming back to haunt him.

In a 2006 interview, the former vice president criticized amnesty and said that immigrants should learn English. Video of the interview has resurfaced as Biden is seeking the nomination of a party that has embraced open borders in everything but name.

“The Democratic position also recognizes you’ve got 11 million illegal aliens here,” Biden said at the time. “This isn’t amnesty. They’re required to take 11 years work. They’ve gotta pay a fine. They’ve got to learn to speak English.”

Flashback to 2006

Speaking on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews over a decade ago, Biden made criticisms of immigration that would have him labeled a bigot by today’s standards. Uncle Joe said that he was skeptical of immigration without assimilation and said that immigrants have to “earn” a right to migrate — no amnesty.

The former vice president was arguing for the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act, a failed immigration reform bill, when he agreed with Matthews that a country that has two official languages is weaker than a country with just one.

“I can’t think of a country that has two languages as their accepted languages that is doing at all well, including Switzerland…Canada,” Biden said.

“It divides us,” Matthews said. “You can’t talk to each other.”

In another resurfaced video, Biden advocated building a 40-story fence to stop “corrupt Mexico” from sending cheap, illegal labor to the United States. Speaking to a South Carolina Rotary club in 2006, Biden called for employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants to be punished.

“Let me tell you, we can build a fence 40 stories high, [but] unless you change the dynamic in Mexico,” Biden said, “and punish American employers who knowingly violate the law when, in fact, they hire illegals — unless you do those two things, all the rest is window dressing.”

Looking back

The videos provide a look back into a different era when Democrats at least pretended to believe in borders. By the standards of today’s Democratic Party, Biden’s past comments are shockingly offensive.

But this is not the first time Biden has struggled with his past comments. The former vice president kicked off his campaign as a bonafide apology tour for his record on criminal justice, climate change, and gender issues, as he took a beating for his role in the drug war, his handling of Anita Hill’s sexual misconduct allegations against Clarence Thomas, and his opposition to bussing to end segregation.

Biden has a problem: at age 76, he has been in politics a long time, and with that comes a lengthy record. With that record comes all kinds of ideological sins that Biden didn’t even realize he was committing at the time. How could he have known that years later, his party would have an epiphany and realize that borders are bad?

Of course, he’s not the only Democrat to have an epiphany on immigration, or gay marriage, or abortion in the late stage of their career. But Biden is running to lead a Democratic Party that has never been more radical. By the standards of circa-post-2015 Democrats, Biden’s past stances on various issues are simply unpalatable.

Switching sides

Responding to far-left pressure, Biden recently declared that he supports free health care for undocumented immigrants. Talk about a flip-flop.

Biden also recently flipped his position on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortion. Biden prided himself on his moderate abortion stance for years, but a middle-of-the-road approach just isn’t going to cut it for radicals who support infanticide.

Still, Biden is hardly the first Democrat to have their previous insufficiently woke opinions exposed. Back during the government shutdown, video of Biden’s colleague Chuck Schumer (D-NY) circulated that showed the Democrat stumping for border security.

Like Schumer, Biden’s just another empty suit following the fashions of the times. Will he be able to win over the crazies, or will he flounder in the shadow of his former self?