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Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016/Immigration
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See below what Hillary Clinton and the 2016 Democratic Party Platform said about immigration.
| CANDIDATE SUMMARY | |
Clinton on immigration
- In an interview with Vox conducted on June 22, 2016, and published on July 11, 2016, Hillary Clinton discussed the benefits of immigration with interviewer Ezra Klein. Clinton said, “I think there are three big problems we have to address. One is just the human cost of those 11 million undocumented immigrants. I have met many of them — in fact, we all have, whether we acknowledge it or not. And these are hardworking people. These are people who are already contributing to the economy, whose children are in schools, who are really absolutely committed to the American dream. … I think also, though, there’s a lot of evidence that moving toward comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship would be good for our economy. We already know that undocumented workers are putting about $12 billion into the Social Security trust fund with no anticipation at this point that they’ll ever get anything out. They’re paying payroll taxes; they’re paying other forms of taxes — state and local as well as federal.”[2]
- On May 25, 2016, Clinton pledged to address immigration reform featuring a pathway to citizenship within her first 100 days in office if elected president.[3]
- In a statement released on May 12, 2016, Clinton said that she opposed the Obama administration’s plan to conduct large-scale immigration raids in May and June because they “tear families apart and sow fear in communities” and “are not productive and do not reflect who we are as a country.”[4]
- Clinton announced on April 13, 2016, her plan to establish an Office of Immigrant Affairs to “build on the work of the Obama administration’s task force, and create a dedicated place in the White House to coordinate immigration policies across the federal government and with state and local government as well.” She presented the plan after being endorsed by the immigrant rights group New York State Immigrant Action Fund.[5][6]
- At the eighth Democratic debate on March 9, 2016, Clinton commented on whether or not she would deport undocumented immigrants in the United States. She said, “Of the people, the undocumented people living in our country, I do not want to see them deported. I want to see them on a path to citizenship. That is exactly what I will do.”[7]
- Clinton announced endorsements from eight prominent immigration activists on February 3, 2016. "Less than a month after Hillary announced her candidacy for president, her campaign reached out to us and said that she wanted to hear directly from DREAMers about our lives and experiences," Astrid Silva, the organizing director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, said in a statement. “Although it was tempting to fall for what basically amounted to an immigration activist's wish list, we owed it to our families to support a realistic and achievable approach to fixing our immigration system,” Silva continued without directly mentioning Bernie Sanders.[8]
- Clinton called for an end to deportation raids of undocumented immigrants fleeing violence in Central America and increased funding for immigration attorneys to handle these asylum cases. “Our immigration enforcement efforts should be humane and conducted in accordance with due process, and that is why I believe we must stop the raids happening in immigrant communities," Clinton said in a statement on January 11, 2016.[9]
- In response to reports of planned raids on undocumented refugees from Central America, Clinton’s campaign released a statement on December 24, 2015: "Hillary Clinton has real concerns about these reports, especially as families are coming together during this holiday season. She believes it is critical that everyone has a full and fair hearing, and that our country provides refuge to those that need it. And we should be guided by a spirit of humanity and generosity as we approach these issues.”[10]
- In a July 2015 CNN interview, Clinton criticized San Francisco, a sanctuary city, for not enforcing federal immigration law and deporting a Mexican citizen who later murdered a young woman. Clinton said, "Well, what should be done is any city should listen to the Department of Homeland Security, which as I understand it, urged them to deport this man again after he got out of prison another time. Here’s a case where we’ve deported, we’ve deported, we’ve deported, he ends back up in our country, and I think the city made a mistake. The city made a mistake not to deport someone that the federal government strongly felt should be deported. So I have absolutely no support for a city that ignores the strong evidence that should be acted on. However, there are — if it were the first time traffic citation many, if it were something minor — a misdemeanor, that’s entirely different. This man had already been deported five times, and he should have been deported at the request of the federal government."[11]
- Clinton had previously expressed support for sanctuary cities in 2007, saying, "If local law enforcement begins to act like immigration officers what that means is that you will have people not reporting crimes. You will have people hiding from the police. And I think that is a real direct threat to the personal safety and security of all the citizens. So this is a result of the failure of the federal government and that’s where it needs to be fixed.”[12]
- In April 2014, Clinton said that she supported "immigration reform and a path to citizenship."[13]
| Hillary Clinton on immigration and a path to citizenship |
- Clinton voted for S 1348 - Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007.[14]
- She voted for HR 6061 - Secure Fence Act of 2006, which authorized the construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.[15]
DACA/ 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."[16] 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.[17]
- 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."[18]
| "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.”[19]
- 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."[20]
- 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."[21]
- 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.”[22]
- 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."[22]
- 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.”[22]
- Read what other presidential candidates said about immigration and the DACA and DAPA programs.
| The 2016 Democratic Party Platform on immigration | ||||||
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Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term Hillary + Clinton + Immigration
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ CNN, "Hillary Clinton launches second presidential bid," April 12, 2015
- ↑ Vox, "The Vox Conversation: Hillary Clinton," June 22, 2016
- ↑ The Los Angeles Times, "Hillary Clinton prepares new pledge on infrastructure spending amid fresh furor over her emails," May 25, 2016
- ↑ The Hill, "Sanders, Clinton slam new round of deportation raids," May 12, 2016
- ↑ The Huffington Post, "Hillary Clinton Vows To Create An Office Dedicated To Helping Immigrants," April 13, 2016
- ↑ NBC News, "Clinton Gets Immigration Group's Endorsement Before NY Primary," April 13, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Transcript: The Post-Univision Democratic debate, annotated," March 9, 2016
- ↑ Latin Post, "Hillary Clinton Wins Endorsements From 8 Immigration Activists in Nevada," February 3, 2016
- ↑ The Huffington Post, "Hillary Clinton Calls On Obama Administration To End Deportation Raids," January 11, 2016
- ↑ Reuters, "Presidential candidate Clinton concerned about U.S. deportations," December 24, 2015
- ↑ The Daily Caller, "Hillary On San Francisco Illegal Immigrant Murder: ‘The City Made A Mistake,'" July 7, 2015
- ↑ Breitbart, "Hillary flashback: sanctuary cities keep all citizens safe," July 6, 2015
- ↑ Mother Jones, "Watch Hillary Clinton Tell an Undocumented 19-Year-Old Why She Supports Immigration Reform," accessed February 2, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "S.1348 - Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007," accessed February 2, 2015
- ↑ Congress.gov, "H.R.6061 - Secure Fence Act of 2006," accessed February 3, 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
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 The Washington Post, "What did Hillary really propose on immigration?" accessed April 7, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Democratic Party, "The 2016 Democratic Party Platform," accessed August 23, 2016
