Sanders: ‘I Would Be Positively Disposed to’ Expanding Asylum to Include Climate Refugees

During an MSNBC climate change forum on Thursday, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stated that he believes he “would be positively disposed to” expanding asylum categories to include people who are pushed out of their homes due to climate change.

Moderator Chris Hayes asked, “Would you favor expanding the asylum categories, which are enumerated, right, to include a category for people that are specifically climate — pushed out by climate?”

Sanders responded, “I think that is absolutely something that we have to look at, and I think I would be positively disposed to that. But it has to exist all over the world. … I mean, it’s not just people in Latin America who would gravitate to the United States. It is people all over the world. And it means that we have to deal with the crises in these countries right now so that people can possibly stay there, and we have to welcome people all over the world.”

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