Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016/DACA and DAPA
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This page was current as of the 2016 election.
See what Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Platform said about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of U.S. Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) programs.
| CANDIDATE SUMMARY | |
Clinton on DACA and DAPA
- After the United States Supreme Court blocked President Obama from implementing his Immigration Accountability Executive Actions on June 23, 2016, Hillary Clinton tweeted: "Today's heartbreaking #SCOTUS immigration ruling could tear apart 5 million families facing deportation. We must do better. -H."[2] In a statement, Clinton called the ruling purely procedural and said that she thought President Obama had the authority to implement his immigration executive actions.[3]
- During a Democratic town hall event on February 19, 2016, a woman asked, "Mrs. Clinton, what would you do to make possible that the DACA students become permanent residents? You know, they live with a lot of fear, because they have to renew their permits every two years and that is a terrifying prospect for them." Clinton replied, "Well, that's why I support the president's executive orders on DACA and DAPA. And I will do everything I can to make sure that they are kept in place. As you know, there's a court action challenging them. I don't know what's going to happen now, because of the Supreme Court situation. But I will renew them. I will go further if it's at all legally possible. And I will make this a big political issue because we need to keep those young people working, going to school, being productive members of our society. So I have to tell you, I will do what I can as president. I'm hoping if we win back the Senate and we win the White House again, the Republicans are going to see the error of their ways and quit using immigrants to divide our country and quit taking the kind of mean-spirited actions that they do. You know, I was the first person to call out Donald Trump. I said, 'Basta!' enough of this prejudice and paranoia and the kind of language that he uses. So I will do everything I can not only for the young people who deserve the highest protection, but for their families, as well."[4]
| "Hillary Clinton Speaks On The Future Of DACA," February 19, 2016. |
- At the sixth Democratic presidential debate on February 11, 2016, Clinton discussed President Obama's Immigration Accountability Executive Actions and comprehensive immigration reform. She said, “I strongly support the president's executive actions. I hope the Supreme Court upholds them. I think there is constitutional and legal authority for the president to have done what he did. I am against the raids. I'm against the kind of inhumane treatment that is now being visited upon families, waking them up in the middle of the night, rounding them up. We should be deporting criminals, not hardworking immigrant families who do the very best they can and often are keeping economies going in many places in our country. I'm a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform. Have been ever since I was in the Senate. I was one of the original sponsors of the DREAM Act. I voted for comprehensive immigration reform in 2007. Senator Sanders voted against it at that time. Because I think we have to get to comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship. And as president I would expand enormous energy, literally call every member of Congress that I thought I could persuade. Hopefully after the 2016 election, some of the Republicans will come to their senses and realize we are not going to deport 11 or 12 million people in this country. And they will work with me to get comprehensive immigration reform.”[5]
- During a campaign speech at the National Immigrant Integration Conference in Brooklyn, New York, on December 19, 2015, Clinton noted that her director of Latino outreach, Lorella Praeli, was a DREAMer in order to highlight her stance on DACA and DAPA. Clinton said, "We’ve got to keep pushing Congress to act and we’ve got to keep raising the stakes, so candidates and elected officials know there will be consequences if they do not support comprehensive immigration reform. But having said that, we also can’t wait for the Congress. Too many families’ futures hang in the balance. So you can count on me to defend President Obama's executive actions on DACA and DAPA when I am president."[6]
- Clinton's campaign website stated that would she "defend DACA and DAPA against partisan attacks and politically motivated lawsuits that would put DREAMers and others at risk of deportation." It also noted that Clinton would "put in place a simple, straightforward, accessible system for parents of DREAMers and others with a history of service and contribution to their communities to be able to make their case and be eligible for deferred action as well."[7]
- On May 5, 2016, Clinton expressed her support for President Obama's executive actions on expanding DACA and implementing DAPA. She said, “If Congress refuses to act, as President I will do everything possible under the law to go even further. There are more people — like many parents of DREAMers and others with deep ties and contributions to our communities—who deserve a chance to stay. I’ll fight for them too. The law currently allows for sympathetic cases to be reviewed, but right now most of these cases have no way to get a real hearing. Therefore we should put in place a simple, straightforward, and accessible way for parents of DREAMers and others with a history of service and contribution to their communities to make their case and be eligible for the same deferred action as their children.”[8]
- Washington Post opinion writer Greg Sargent wrote, "Clinton didn’t definitively say that as president she would award what amounts to a quasi-categorical grant of deferred action status to parents of DREAMers. Rather, she said she would seek to improve the process by which parents of DREAMers can apply for existing deferred action status, which (as mentioned above) they can already do."[8]
- Immigration attorney David Leopold agreed with Sargent's assessment, saying, “All of us walked away from this thinking she is going to expand DACA and DAPA, but it’s not clear she would do that. She didn’t explicitly call for expanding Obama’s current executive actions. She didn’t say, ‘I’m going to expand DAPA to the parents of DREAMers.’ What she did say is there should be a simple process in place by which people who have been here a long time can apply for deferred action. But that wouldn’t mean a categorical grant.”[8]
| The 2016 Democratic Party Platform on immigration | |||
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ CNN, "Hillary Clinton launches second presidential bid," April 12, 2015
- ↑ Twitter, "Hillary Clinton," accessed June 23, 2016
- ↑ Politico, "Clinton: Supreme Court 'unacceptable' on immigration ruling," accessed June 23, 2016
- ↑ Real Clear Politics, "Woman Asks Hillary In Spanish: What Will You Do To Make DACA Children Permanent Residents?" accessed April 7, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Transcript: The Democratic debate in Milwaukee, annotated," February 11, 2016
- ↑ HillaryClinton.com, "Remarks on plan to strengthen immigrant families at the National Immigrant Integration Conference in Brooklyn," accessed April 7, 2016
- ↑ HillaryClinton.com, "Immigration reform," accessed April 7, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 The Washington Post, "What did Hillary really propose on immigration?" accessed April 7, 2016
- ↑ Democratic Party, "The 2016 Democratic Party Platform," accessed August 23, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
