Are we really still referring to South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg as one of the “moderate” candidates in the Democratic primary? Because if so, he’s really doing his level best to shed that title and move into the socialist lane. Yesterday he was having a discussion with the Reverend William Barber when the subject of illegal immigration came up. Barber tossed out some seriously open borders style propositions and found a willing ear with Buttigieg.

First Barber asked if we shouldn’t stop “demonizing” illegal aliens. Mayor Pete didn’t just agree with him. He went one step further, saying “Yeah, I mean the uncomfortable reality is that undocumented folks are in many ways, like Social Security, subsidizing everybody else.”

Yes, you read that correctly. Buttigieg actually compared illegal aliens crossing our borders to the Social Security system. But that wasn’t enough for Reverend Barber. He next asked Mayor Pete if Mexicans crossing our borders illegally aren’t just trying to reclaim the land that we stole from them. (Daily Wire)

“And we need to talk about that – and shouldn’t we have some conversation whenever people say, we call people ‘illegal aliens’ and all these things that are not human, are certainly not Christian,” Barber continued. “Why can’t we just own in America that some of the people that are trying to come from Mexico here are coming back to land we stole, and the reason we took the land is because people wanted to keep their slaves?

Buttigieg nodded in agreement as Barber made his remarks.

Barber gets bonus points for managing to work a slavery reference into that, but it’s still one of the wackier things to be heard in an already bizarre campaign season. And he managed to get Buttigieg to nod along in agreement.

First of all, it’s not entirely clear who Barber is implying the land was stolen from, who did the stealing and how it would be “reclaimed” in this scenario. He might be referring either to the way that Texas gained independence from Mexico and joined the union, or possibly the original, indigenous owners of the land.

If he’s talking about the first scenario, it’s true that there were slave owners in the territory in the period leading up to 1845 and slavery was technically illegal in Mexico. (That prohibition went largely unenforced.) But when it came to “taking” the land, Texas declared its independence as agreed to by Santa Anna. But the government of Mexico refused to support that deal and Texans knew they would need the stability offered by membership in the union to maintain control of their own destiny.

But let’s just say that Buttigieg agrees that the United States “stole” Texas from Mexico. It’s part of our country now and has been for more than 150 years. Should individual Mexicans be allowed to cross the border at will and start claiming Texas? And what about the people crossing over into New Mexico, Arizona and California? Did we “steal” that land too?

If Barber was suggesting that the land originally belonged to the indigenous people of North America, he’ll get no argument from me on that count. But have you ever wondered why the people in Mexico speak Spanish instead of, say… Incan? Yes, it’s because most of them are descendants of the European (primarily Spanish) invaders who came and “stole” that land from the natives. The same can be said for most of the migrants coming from South America. You’ll notice they all speak Spanish or Portuguese as well.

If this is how Buttigieg’s mind operates, it’s probably time to stop referring to him as a “moderate” competitor to Joe Biden. He’s on record favoring amnesty for at least some illegal aliens, has denounced construction of new sections of the border wall and views border enforcement as being inhuman. His other policies are just as far to the left as Warren’s and Sanders’ on most days. The fact is, he’s mostly indistinguishable from the rest of the field.