The raids have riled lawmakers and activists, who say they are disruptive and ill-timed, and were breaking families apart as well as spreading fear across immigrant communities.
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The letter, which Politico obtained before its release, praises the Obama administration’s “fundamental American values” in its concern for refugees from the Middle East, but criticizes the White House for deporting Central American migrants and not coming up with a “comprehensive refugee solution”, or a roadmap to regional stability.
“I do not think the raids are an appropriate tool to enforce the immigration laws”, Clinton said during the Black & Brown Forum hosted by Fusion at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland have adopted similar stances.
In the spin room afterwards, Sanders campaign’s Erika Andiola said she wasn’t surprised with said that Clinton is always careful with the words she uses on immigration.
After the numbers of families caught crossing the border spiked in 2014 the administration started opening detention centers created to house several thousand families while their cases were processed in federal immigration court.
“All of these things are things of course that Hillary Clinton has been talking about on the campaign trail as well” Davis said, dismissing polls that continue to suggest voters are looking to make a big change in November “At the end of the day, we need a driver in that seat who understands how to build upon that progress, and to continue it. That person is Hillary Clinton”. “They are afraid to go to the hospital, or even the grocery store”. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida exchange barbs about who has the stronger record on this issue.
House Democrats had delayed a press conference they were scheduled to hold Tuesday morning as a courtesy to the White House, according to sources, but they are still planning to move forward with it Tuesday afternoon, which signals they don’t expect the administration to shift their position on the recent raids. Such images remain vivid to policymakers, and avoiding a repeat is a priority. They have stepped up advertising in Central American countries to warn of the dangers of the trip and point to $750 million in a year-end spending bill to help those nations. All those targeted had arrived after 2014 and had exhausted their legal options.
Such explanations fall flat for advocates such as Adelina Nicholls, executive director of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights.
The recent raids pursued families with undocumented members, in what some immigration groups viewed as a response by officials to a deter Central Americans flooding across the boder in the southwest.
“And I also have come out in favor of guaranteeing that unaccompanied children have government-sponsored counsel, so that as they go through the process, they will not be lost in the process, confused by the process, and will have a chance to tell their story”. “We are not happy with Obama”.
Now Democrats are once again questioning the approach of a White House that, in turn, has been taken aback by the strong reaction from some of its allies.
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“I can not sit here and tell you I have a blanket rule about who or who won’t ever be let into the country to stay because it has to be done individual by individual”, Clinton said.
