JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon fired a shot at his "super liberal friends" in New York over immigration issues when speaking with CNBC on Wednesday.
Dimon, who represented the bank at the first day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, launched his interview with CNBC by talking about the need for aid in Ukraine.
Dimon met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss his country's war with Russia while he was in Davos. However, the CNBC interview quickly shifted to immigration issues at the U.S.-Mexico border.
New York City has seen a sharp increase in migrant arrivals since August 2022, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began bussing over migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border. The uptick in numbers in New York has left city officials scrambling to come up with shelter, resources and healthcare for them.
The city has been receiving more than 13,000 migrants a month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a Tuesday morning press conference. She has proposed allocating $2.4 billion in state funds to help tackle the influx.
Dimon, who has previously described his heart as being "Democratic," but that he had a "kind of Republican" brain, according to a CNBC report, took a firm stance that the U.S. needed to do more to protect its borders.
"If you do not control the borders, you are going to destroy our country," Dimon said. "Now they're sending the migrants into New York and stuff like that, so all of my super liberal friends, now they realize what a problem it is."
A JP Morgan spokesperson told Newsweek that the company would not comment on the interview.
Dimon's remarks about the border come as congressional leaders negotiate a bipartisan deal to provide funding for Ukraine and Israel amid their ongoing wars with Russia and Hamas, respectively, as well as for the U.S-Mexico border.
Late last year, President Joe Biden asked Congress to authorize roughly $106 billion in additional aid and funding for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the southern border, but the package has faced resistance from conservatives who say aid for Kyiv should be separate from funding for the U.S.-Mexico border.
There were more than 2.4 million migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. Republicans have blamed the uptick on Biden's border policies, which they say incentivize illegal immigration.
Dimon said although he hasn't read the bill in full, he "probably would take it" if he were in Congress. He went on to add that he thought the U.S. needed more merit-based immigration and a path to citizenship.
"We want to have a big heart for the world, but we have to control the borders," he said.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Anna Skinner is a Newsweek senior reporter based in Indianapolis. Her focus is reporting on the climate, environment and weather ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
