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Frame from Bernie Sanders: "Open borders? That's a Koch brothers proposal" Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

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

18 videos recommended on HN
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Cited on HN 18 times, 2015–2026, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

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

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.

“Here's bernie sanders talking about how open boarders is pushed by the koch brothers to give them cheap labor” (HN, 2018)

17 citations · 1 critical · Interviews · news from the time

18 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@lumberjack Nov 2015 Cites it
on HN thread Text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
I think Bernie Sanders elucidates well on this issue in this video. It's about immigration but essentially the same situation: [this video] Basically whether it is morally right or wrong is irrelevant because the US government has a duty to put the American people first.
Sanders calls open borders a Koch brothers proposal
@rdtsc Feb 2017 Cites it
on HN thread As Obesity Rises, Remote Pacific Islands Plan to Abandon Junk Food
Read more
Anti-globalization was always a hot topic for the left. Read Chomsky on NAFTA for example and free trade: [link] Here is Bernie Sanders being visibly upset at raising immigration levels and instituting "open borders" policy: [this video] I am kind of interested how the current liberals become pro-globalization all of the sudden. They went from organizing large anti-globalization riots, and getting tear gased fighting it, to "What do you mean? We love globalization!". I want to see a more specific analysis in how the shift happened, and maybe a more detailed timeline. Certainly an interesting topic. Here is of course Zuckerberg with his letter worrying that people are not buying the globalization shtick very well anymore: [link] If you squint enough to not notice the liberal veneer he puts on you might think he is one of the Koch brothers.
Sanders opposing open borders, cited in an argument about the left
@rdtsc Feb 2017 Cites it
on HN thread Encouraging individual sovereignty and a healthy commons
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I made a few tangential points regard globalization in a similar discussion. Basically wondering how globalization which was a very right wing corporatist idea (Sanders calls it a Koch brothers proposal here [this video] basically) became a favorite of the new left. And conversely anti-globalization was a top issue for the left along with TPP, NAFTA and other such stuff. I think it is rather ironic that the new "left" love them globalization all of the sudden, even when their younger brothers were tear-gassed protesting it, just a decade ago or so protesting against it. (More discussion here [link] along with a promising book on the subject, 'The Technological Society' by Jacques Ellul suggested by Drumlin. Still waiting for it to come from Amazon)
Sanders calling open borders a Koch idea
@rdtsc Oct 2017 Cites it
on HN thread Reddit hires first lobbyists
There an interesting thing there. Bernie, believe or not, was very much against globalization, TPP and open borders in general: [this video] Listen to how he says it, it's a thing he really hates. This is not fluke or anything, Chomsky another leftist thinker also has been anti-NAFTA well, since it was signed pretty much: [link] Notice how he correctly predicted an influx of poor South American farmers who are pretty much forced to abandon their family to come and wash toilets and pick crops here.
Sanders strongly against open borders
@hopefulengineer Oct 2018 Cites it
on HN thread Do the Rich Capture All the Gains from Economic Growth?
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It's supply and demand 101, illegal immigration combined with offshoring lowers wages and increases profit margin for the wealthy. Low wage jobs are taken by illegal immigrants, forcing US citizens to take on debt to go to college, where wages are also lowered because there are now thousands of college grads desperate to pay off their debt that can't be eliminated through bankruptcy due to congress being lobbied. A wonderful scam. Same thing with big tech companies pushing for more H1B to push down engineering wages and lower standard of living. This stuff shouldn't even be left vs right, it should be common sense. Here's bernie sanders talking about how open boarders is pushed by the koch brothers to give them cheap labor [this video] We're rapidly heading towards feudalism 2.0. You can already see it in the Bay Area(and essentially any major urban area) where only the wealthy can afford a home. The majority pay a large chunk of their income to their landlord
Sanders on open borders giving Kochs cheap labor
@hopefulengineer Nov 2018 Cites it
on HN thread Suicide increasing among American workers
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Older family friend made $30/hr in the 60-70s with pension and benefits working in a meat packing plant with a high school education. Same job today pays $15/hr with no benefits thanks to illegal immigration. There's a reason people like the Koch brothers spend millions in support of illegal immigration, they wanted to drive down the labor cost for jobs like the above. [this video] Offshoring and illegal immigration has killed low skill jobs and given billion dollar multinational corporations the ability to demand whatever they want from workers because they have unlimited labor supply. This doesn't just effect low skill labor either, it forces more people to go to college and take on debt which then drives down the wages of high skill work as well. It's a scam and the american people should be angry
Sanders interview cited on immigration and wages
@deogeo Aug 2019 Cites it
on HN thread Socialite Cordelia Scaife May Spent Her Fortune Trying to Keep Immigrants Out
> I find it difficult to believe that a pro-trade union candidate like Bernie Sanders does not understand the basic laws of supply/demand: How a supply of cheap labour affects the wages of the individual employee. This interview would indicate that he understands that, and wants to restrict immigration for that very reason: [this video] Edit: The interview is from 2015, so it may be that his understanding has 'evolved' since.
Interview showing Sanders wants restricted immigration over wages
@rdtsc Aug 2019 Cites it
on HN thread Socialite Cordelia Scaife May Spent Her Fortune Trying to Keep Immigrants Out
One of the illustrative point is also that some present day Democrat presidential candidates and legislators just 4-5 years ago were against increased immigration and open borders. Listen to what Sanders has to say about "open borders": [this video] he is not just slightly against it, he is quite upset by the idea altogether.
Sanders upset by open borders idea
@deogeo Oct 2019 Cites it
on HN thread State of Health Report Shows Growing Despair Among American Men
> There are immigrants in Europe. If you look at European countries individually there is massive immigration between them, as well as immigration from outside. And yet. And yet in almost no country has the original population almost become a minority, unlike the US. So clearly the cumulative net immigration is greater in the US. And Bernie Sanders (someone who has certainly applied the "least amount of reflection" to this) seems to share the GPs view: [this video]
Sanders shares the view on immigration levels
@blandcoffee Dec 2024 Cites it
on HN thread 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.
Old Sanders interview on business interests and immigration
@blandcoffee Dec 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Trump sides with Musk on support for H-1B visas for foreign tech workers
This policy needs a refresh - there are many issues with the H1B program today - a good article if you're interested: [link] We should be wary billionaires are controlling these policies. Bernie Sanders did this interview a decade ago and he was right, unchecked immigration is not in the economic interest of the working class. [this video]
Interview cited as correct about immigration and working class
@AlexandrB Jul 2025 Cites it
on HN thread The United States withdraws from UNESCO
Read more
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]
Cited as source for Sanders' Koch strategy claim
@AlexandrB Sep 2025 Cites it
on HN thread 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.
Sanders cited on corporate lobbying for immigration
@slowhadoken Jan 2026 Cites it
on HN thread 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?
Sanders making the commenter's point
@blisseyGo Aug 2020 Pushes back
on HN thread Joe Biden picks Kamala Harris as his running mate
Here is Bernie in 2015 saying against open borders saying it was a rightwing proposal: [this video] [link] Now he's fully onboard with open border policies. He doesn't even have the same message he did 5 years ago. Just like his twitter history shows him tweeting about evil millionaires and billionaires until he became a millionaire himself and now only targets billionaires.
Used to show Sanders' flip-flop on open borders

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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