Antonio Sabato Jr explains immigration stance on ‘The View’, saving money with a wall
Actor and model Antonio Sabato Jr. appeared on The View and took questions on immigration, a proposed Southern border wall.
Sabato is both an immigrant and pro-border security, a contrast that the liberal hosts needed to reconcile.
Antonio Sabato Jr
“Let me ask you another thing difficult for me to understand,” started Sunny Hostin. “We talked about your family having to hide their identity during the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia and you came here at 12 years old from Italy speaking no English and this country embraced you. … You call yourself an immigrant, but you’re in favor of the wall being built, being paid for by the American people and keeping other immigrants out of the country much like yourself.”
“The way I see it, I want the American people to be taken care of first,” said Sabato. “I don’t want the American people to take care of everybody else’s problems,” he said, prompting Joy Behar to chime in, “But if they felt that way when your family was coming over here you would still be in Italy,” she said, apparently unaware of the difference between legal and illegal immigration.
“I came here legally,” he retorted. “We had to wait in line and struggle and save a lot of money.”
Sabato is a legal immigrant to the U.S. and is currently seeking political office in California. He “came out” as conservative at the Republican National Convention in 2016, an appearance for which Sabato claims he was blacklisted by Hollywood.
“There’s people like that waiting in line,” Sabato continued, referencing potential immigrants following our laws and respecting American sovereignty. “So, they deserve their chance. We need to legalize — I mean there has to be reform…but at the same time we need to protect our borders and build.”
Behar argued that the wall was too expensive and would be ineffective because illegals are getting over the border. “But logically people who are coming in even legally or illegally are flying in; they’re not jumping over a wall,” she said. “It’s a waste of money. Isn’t it? That’s how I see it.”
Sabato returned fire with facts: “We are arresting at the border 1,000 people every single day,” he said. “And there’s probably a lot more coming in. So we can’t allow that to happen and they’re bringing a lot of drugs or whatever. So, we need to protect the American people. That’s all I’m saying.”
“And you think this wall is going to do it,” Behar shot back.
“It’s done it for Israel. Mexico has a got a wall,” replied Sabato. “Why can’t we?”
“It’s a very big, big, big expensive wall we’re talking about and it may not be cost-effective,” said Behar.
“We spend $100 billion on immigration every year. The wall will cost will probably cost less than $20 billion. So, we will save a lot of money,” Sabato replied calmly.
