Bill Clinton calls for migrants to 'begin working, paying taxes and paying their way' in New York City

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FOX News' Nate Foy reports from outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on how the city is handling the migrant crisis as more are expected to arrive.

Former President Bill Clinton agreed with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday by arguing that New York City’s "Right to Shelter Law" must be changed.

"Gov. [Kathy] Hochul thinks it should be modified, and it probably should under the circumstances," Clinton told radio host John Catsimatidis on 77 WABC radio’s "The Cats Roundtable" show, as flagged by the New York Post. 

"It’s broken. We need to fix it," Clinton said, adding that the law "doesn’t make any sense."

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Former President Bill Clinton agreed with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday by arguing that New York City’s "Right to Shelter Law" must be changed. (Reuters | Getty Images / File)

The "Right to Shelter" has existed in New York City for more than 40 years and requires sheltering for the homeless. New York is an asylum city.

"They come here, and we’re supposed to shelter people who can’t get work permits for six months. We need to change that," he said, noting that migrants have a right to begin "paying their way" in American society.

"They ought to work," Clinton said. "They need to begin working, paying taxes and paying their way. Most of these people have no interest in being on welfare."

The former president said that America's low birth rate requires that the economy be shored up by either "immigrants or machines."

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Clinton also called for more housing to be built to hold migrants. (Luiz C. Ribeiro / New York Daily News / Tribune News Service via Getty Images / File)

Clinton also called for more housing to be built to hold migrants. 

"We should build more housing just over the Rio Grande, and Mexico, I think, would support that," he said. "Keep people there, and let them in as quickly as possible if they are going someplace where we know they can get a job, and they’ll be welcome."

Clinton said the "chaos" around the migrant crisis has been "very beneficial for the Republicans," especially since the "immigration system that is not well manned and there are not enough facilities along the border."

The former president, an Arkansas native, weighed in on Democrat political losses in New York.

"But the Democrats lost enough seats in New York because of reaction to the crime problem here and the sense that — we didn’t have — we, my party — didn’t have a good commonsense approach to it," he said, referring to the migrants.

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