Hillary Makes Clear Her Stance on Immigration

At the debate held last Wednesday night in Miami Florida sponsored by Univision, a Spanish-language network and The Washington Post, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders argued over immigration. It is an issue of great importance in Florida where one-fourth of the population is Latino. In her opening remarks, Hillary reiterated that one of the priorities in her first 100 days as president will be her comprehensive immigration reform legislation offering those undocumented persons already in the U.S. a path to citizenship.

Keeping immigrant families together and enabling millions of workers to come out of the shadows is the core of Hillary’s comprehensive immigration reform platform. Her emphasis on the need “to break down all the barriers that hold our families and our country back and build ladders of opportunity for all our people” applies to a variety of issues ranging from her proposals to strengthen the middle class through job creation, promoting education and health care, and expanding opportunities for women and children as well as to the issue of immigration.

One touching moment during the debate was when the candidates were taking questions from the audience. A middle age Guatemalan, Lucia Quiej, put forth an emotional question to the Democratic presidential hopefuls. Lucia’s husband, an undocumented immigrant, was deported in 2011 because of an expired driver’s license. He was denied asylum in the U.S. and was forced to leave his wife as the only breadwinner in the five children family. Her question was, “What will you do to stop deportations and reunite families?”

Hearing the question of Lucia, Hillary showed her empathy by first admiring her courage to come to the debate with her children to tell her story. She assured Lucia that she will do everything she can to prevent other families from facing similar problems and that she will do everything she can to pass the laws that would bring families together.

When asked about the deportation of children both candidates strongly promised to disallow deportation of children. Hillary made clear her stance that not only will she not allow deportation of children but that she wants to enact laws to include guaranteed counselling and other support for these children. She does not want to see undocumented people living in our country who have no criminal records deported. Instead, she wants to put them on a path to citizenship.  However, she made it clear that she believes that violent criminals, people planning terrorist attacks, and anybody who threatens the country should be deported.

Hillary criticized Bernie Sanders for voting against the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007  which called for the biggest changes in immigration laws in more than 20 years. It offered legal status to millions of illegal immigrants while trying to secure the nation’s border. Authored by Senator Kennedy, the immigration bill was the cornerstone of then President Bush’s domestic agenda which was defeated in the Senate. Has this bill passed, Hillary believes that it could have gone a long was towards resolving the current immigration problems.

Hillary and Bernie share common ground on other issues related to immigration reform. They would carry forward President Obama’s executive actions granting relief from deportation for parents of children born in the United States and for children brought into the country illegally. Both said they supported creating a legal path to citizenship for those immigrants.

However, Hillary has established a more substantive process on how she plans to carry her immigration policies. She is a champion negotiator. As a mother and a grandmother, she has the heart and the empathy to relate better with those women like Lucia and others with similar problems.

The country needs a president who fights for an America where every family feels like they belong here. And that president is Hillary Clinton.