Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton warned her supporters on Wednesday that Donald Trump is not the only GOP candidate pushing for a tough stance on immigration, and said most of the Republicans are all alike except for a few key features that Trump has over the others.
“Don’t get distracted by the flamboyant frontrunner,” she said in Iowa. “Most of the other Republican candidates are just Trump without the pizzazz or the hair.”
Clinton noted two of Trump’s unique qualities while talking about the need for immigration reform. She said agricultural states like Iowa need immigrants to keep their farms running, and to ensure crops don’t spoil unpicked in the fields.
“The Des Moines register recently noted that even though producers have raised pay, it’s getting harder to find enough workers to harvest their crops,” she said. “And yet many Republicans still say they want to deport millions of hardworking people, breaking up families, disrupting communities and harming our economy.”
And while Trump has captured the imagination of many Republicans and has horrified many Democrats with his comments on immigration, Clinton said Trump is similar to most of the other candidates.
“Just like him, they don’t support a real path to citizenship.”
Immigration has remained a key part of the 2016 White House race so far. President Obama’s executive action on immigration led to widespread opposition in the GOP, which says Obama is looking to legalize millions of illegal immigrants and let them compete for jobs with Americans.
Democrats like Clinton have supported Obama’s move, and have argued that it’s too expensive to deport illegal immigrants, and that doing so would also harm the U.S. economy.
Trump has said he would deport non-citizens, and launched his campaign by maligning Mexican immigrants who he said bring crime into the United States. While some predicted doom for Trump after he said that, Trump instead surged to the top of the GOP pack, and has yet to relinquish that lead.
