Hillary Clinton Backs Path to Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants

Wall Street Journal

By Laura Meckler

May 5, 2015

Hillary Clinton Backs Path to Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants 

Hillary Clinton, bidding to maintain Democratic dominance among Hispanic voters, said Tuesday she would work to expand President Barack Obama’s executive actions protecting people in the U.S. illegally from deportation, and push for legislation including a path to citizenship.

She said GOP proposals for legal status, which some Republicans have embraced, fall short of what’s needed. “We can’t wait any longer for a path to full and equal citizenship,” she said. She said not a single Republican candidate has consistently supported that policy. “When they talk about ‘legal status,’ that is code for second-class status.”

Republicans Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida both once supported a path to citizenship but have modified their positions. Other Republicans oppose any legalization, saying it would reward lawbreaking.

Mrs. Clinton said she would extend the Obama executive action, strongly opposed by Republicans as an abuse of presidential power and parts of which are being challenged in court. The Obama policy gives parents of U.S. citizens as well as young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children the chance for work permits. He said he adopted it in the face of congressional inaction on the issue.

Mrs. Clinton said she would consider expanding that program, known as deferred action, to allow parents of these young people to apply for deportation deferrals. Mr. Bush has said he would roll back the deferred action program, and Mr. Rubio has said he would keep only part of it.

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Mrs. Clinton also said she would support changes to make immigration enforcement and detention “more humane, more targeted and more effective.”

Together, her comments amounted to a full-throated embrace of much of the agenda being pushed by the immigration-rights movement. She made her comments in a presidential swing state, where 18% of eligible voters are Hispanic, at a high school with a student body that is about 70% Hispanic.

The event reflected the growing importance of Hispanic voters, who have helped deliver the White House to Democrats two elections in a row. In 2012, Mr. Obama lost badly among white voters but won re-election because of his strong support from Hispanics and other minorities.

Democrats are particularly fearful that Mr. Bush, who speaks fluent Spanish and talks about immigration with warmth, could attract substantial support from Hispanic voters. Mrs. Clinton’s comments were aimed in part at casting him as on the wrong side of the issue.

Mrs. Clinton has been on record in favor of a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally since at least 2004, but she occasionally has rankled immigration activists.

In 2007, when running for president for the first time, she waffled about whether to support driver’s licenses for undocumented residents. Last summer, she upset some by saying unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally should be sent back to their home countries. Mrs. Clinton also declined last year to urge Mr. Obama to use his executive authority to protect people from deportation.

More recently, Mrs. Clinton supported driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and she made it clear that she supported Mr. Obama’s executive actions after he took them last November.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released this week suggests Mrs. Clinton begins the race as a prohibitive favorite among Latino voters. In head-to-head tests against four potential rivals, she led by as much as 45 percentage points among Latinos. The closest, Mr. Rubio, still trailed her by 31 points.

Still, immigrant activists say Mrs. Clinton would be mistaken to take their votes, or those of Hispanic voters, for granted. Frank Sharry, who leads the advocacy group America’s Voice, said there is lingering wariness about Mrs. Clinton. “She came of age politically…when immigration was viewed as a wedge issue that should be avoided,” he said. On Tuesday, she delivered the speech he was hoping for. “I’m over the moon,” he said.

Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said his group had been in touch with the Clinton camp and urged her to make a commitment to getting a comprehensive immigration bill through Congress in her first 90 days in the White House if she is elected—one with a path to citizenship as an essential element.

Mr. Palomarez said he saw progress among Republicans’ views on the issue, and his group is talking with presidential candidates in both parties.

As a whole, Republicans have moved from the nearly uniform hard line GOP candidates took in 2012, when the eventual nominee, Mitt Romney, said illegal immigrants should “self deport” back home.

At the same time, the 2016 GOP presidential field is displaying a range of positions on immigration. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who announced his candidacy Tuesday, said, “We need to address the immigration issue, but not with amnesty.” Mr. Bush talks about granting legal status to illegal immigrants, though he hasn’t pushed for citizenship in recent appearances.

Mr. Bush’s work to appeal to Latinos was on display Tuesday, when he released a video wishing Hispanics a happy Cinco de Mayo. “My wife Columba was born in Mexico. My family has always had strong ties with Mexico, and I have great respect and affection for our neighboring country,” he said in the video, speaking in Spanish.

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