Photo/Ted Quant
Various Democratic presidential candidates have called for reforming the immoral U.S. immigration system. Below is a representative sample of some of the more specific proposals.
Bernie Sanders: “Instead of demonizing the undocumented immigrants in this country, we are going to pass comprehensive immigration reform and provide a path toward citizenship for all of the undocumented. On our first day in office, through executive order, we’re going to provide legal status to the 1.8 million young people eligible for the DACA program and extend that program to their parents. We’re going to develop a humane border policy for those who seek asylum. We will not be a government which snatches babies from the arms of their mothers or puts children in cages. And we will put in end up to the disastrous raids of the ICE agency.”
Julian Castro: He would downgrade border crossing from a criminal to a civil offense, and chart a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, including Dreamers and those under Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure. He also calls for a 21st-century “Marshall Plan” for Central America. Castro would end the “Remain in Mexico” asylum policy and rescind the ban on refugees from certain countries. He would end the detention of immigrants, except in serious cases; eliminate the for-profit immigration detention and prison industry; end immigration raids at or near such location as schools, hospitals, churches and courthouses; and end local police cooperation with immigration agencies.
Elizabeth Warren: She would decriminalize crossing the border without papers, reduce immigration detention, and increase funding for aid to Central America. She would protect schools, medical facilities, and courthouses from immigration enforcement, and end deputizing local law enforcement as federal immigration officers. Warren would pare back immigrant detention overall and eliminate private detention facilities. She would to admit six to eight times as many refugees as Trump has in her first years as president, and would make it easier for asylum seekers to get a day in court. Warren would expand the DACA program for Dreamers and their families, and favors a path to citizenship for people who fall under Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure.
