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Bernie Sanders: "Open borders? That's a Koch brothers proposal"

VoxCited 18× on HN, 2015–2026
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interview · general · 2015–2026 on HN

A short clip of Bernie Sanders in conversation with Ezra Klein of Vox, where he rejects open borders as a proposal that serves the Koch brothers. It is an excerpt from a longer interview on global poverty.

HN commenters cite it in immigration debates as evidence of Sanders' 2015 position that open borders and high immigration hurt wages.

12 comments from Hacker News

@slowhadoken2026-01 · in “ICE Releases RFI for User Tracking Tools”

@Starman Noam Chomsky is far left and Bernie Sanders is also more liberal than a Democrat. Here is Sanders saying the same thing I did ▶ this video

@slowhadoken2026-01 · in “ICE Releases RFI for User Tracking Tools”

Noam Chomsky is far left and Bernie Sanders is also more liberal than a Democrat. Here is Sanders saying the same thing I did ▶ this video I’m confused, what do you think a liberal is?

@AlexandrB2025-09 · in “Oxford loses top 3 university ranking in the UK”

This is basically 100% backwards. In Canada it's large corporate lobbies pushing for more immigration. Why? Because it lets them keep wages low and makes unionization impossible. See also, Bernie 10 years ago: ▶ this video I don't know at what point people were convinced that the push against immigration is some kind of billionaire plot, but is has been great cover for said billionaires.

@AlexandrB2025-07 · in “The United States withdraws from UNESCO”

I don't think that's quite right. I think over the last 10 years a lot of the anti-corporate energy of Occupy Wall Street has been funnelled - by means of the culture war - into "identity" issues that have little potential to harm corporate power or profits. I would argue that this did not originate on the right or left but was the result of a political class that's beholden to endless donations. To me, one really clear example of this is immigration. As recently as 2016, Bernie Sanders was saying that mass immigration is a Koch Brothers strategy for keeping wages low[1]. I think he was right. But the left has been cajoled away from this position over time because it had the potential to harm their corporate donors. [1] ▶ this video

@blandcoffee2024-12 · in “Ask HN: Are you unable to find employment?”

This topic reminds me of the old interview Bernie Sanders gave nearly a decade ago. ▶ this video I hope citizens wake up, business interests are not always aligned with your (citizen) economic interest. It doesn't matter if it's legal or illegal immigration, there are economic realities that we should talk about - stop focusing on the color of someones skin.