Bernie Sanders slammed the GOP’s views on immigration while speaking at an immigration activists’ forum with the Fair Immigration Reform Movement in Las Vegas on Monday.
Sanders repeatedly contrasted his views with GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s, a tactic of Hillary Clinton’s that her main Democratic opponent has rarely used in the past. In recent weeks as Sanders has taken a slight dip in the polls, he has ramped up his attacks against Clinton. Sanders also needs to up his Latino support.
“What I do not respect are people like Donald Trump who are appealing to racism and xenophobia to win votes,” Sanders said during the forum. “We have come so far as a nation and struggled to much as a nation to overcome racism to let presidential candidates talk about people from Mexico as rapists. That is unacceptable and we will fight that tooth and nail.”
The democratic socialist pledged to enact comprehensive immigration reform within the first 100 days of his administration and expand deportation relief.
Sanders promised a multitude of broad immigration actions, including shutting down immigration detention centers and expanding President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and the Deferred Actions for Parents of Americans program, which is currently on hold.
He added that he would even pardon any person currently in the country illegally if he or she would have been eligible for legal status in 2013, when the Gang of Eight bill passed the Senate, but failed to get a vote in the House.
Sanders also said unaccompanied minors and victims of domestic violence arriving from Central America would be granted asylum.
That promise surpassed anything his fellow candidates have offered on the topics. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley have said they will expand Obama’s deportation relief programs, but have not announced policies as specific as Sanders.’
Sanders also argued that the current immigration system discriminates against women, as women are often the breadwinners of the families but the current immigration policies treat them as dependents, adding “that will change when I’m elected president.”
“We cannot and must not sweep up men women and children who have been here for many years,” Sanders said. “That may be a value of some right-wing Republicans but it is not an American value.”
Trump has said that if elected he would deport the 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States and build a wall between the border and Mexico. Sanders assured the audience that he would never let some actions be taken in the United States, and listened to immigrants as they spoke of the challenges finding work once they came to America.
Sanders responded, “We have to create an economy that stands for all of us not just Donald Trump and his billionaire friends.
• Anna Giaritelli contributed to this report, which was published at 4:59 p.m. and has been updated.
