Latin Times
By Cedar Attanasio
August 21, 2015
Hillary
Clinton was criticized by immigration advocates this week after
standing by comments she made as Secretary of State in 2014. At the
height of the migrant surge
last summer, she supported expedited deportation of unaccompanied
minors from Central America. The criticism comes as rival Democratic
candidate Martin O’Malley calls for more and earlier Democratic debates,
helping him highlight what his campaign says is
a more progressive immigration policy. Meanwhile, the unaccompanied
minors crisis still dogs the Obama administration, as human rights
advocates are ratchet up pressure to end what the call the overdue and
unnecessary imprisonment of mothers and children.
At a presidential campaign event last Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nevada,
Clinton criticized ongoing family detentions, but stood by her her
previous comments on deporting migrants saying that the administration
needed to “send a message” in 2014.
"[We]
had an emergency and it was very important to send a message to
families in Central America, 'do not let your children take this very
dangerous journey' because
a lot of children did not make it. [...] So I think it was the
responsible message. Now I think we have a different problem, the
emergency is over. We need to be moving to try to get people out of
these detention centers, particularly the women and children,”
Clinton told reporters.
The
youth-led immigration advocacy group United We Dream reffirmed their
opposition to Clinton’s handling of the migrant crisis, saying that the
White House “message”
was misguided and may have denied asylum seekers their day in court.
The group cited Vox’s Dara Lind, who argued last year that “Acting
quickly and decisively, as Clinton wants, would basically mean ending
the asylum process in the U.S. as we know it.”
“To
be clear, Sec. Clinton said that refugee children from Central America
should be sent back into violence,” said Cristina Jimenez, managing
director of United we Dream,
in a press release.
The group also criticized Clinton’s most recent comments as patronizing.
“It’s
also disappointing that after more than a year, she’s still unable to
put herself in the shoes of parents having to ‘choose’ between the
threat of losing their children
to forced gang recruitment, violence and possible death, or doing
everything possible to keep them safe,” Jimenez said. “The journey that
many Central American children have been forced to take is undoubtedly
dangerous, but to place the blame on parents and
offer them a lecture is patronizing and wrong.”
In
a previous Las Vegas, Nevada, visit on May 5th Clinton calmed
immigration advocates who were wary of her candidacy. She pledged to
continue DACA and DAPA, Obama’s deferred action programs that shield millions of immigrants in the country from
deportation. “I would do everything possible under the law to go even
further,” she said . Two weeks later, the Clinton campaign named United
We Dream advocacy and policy director Lorella
Praeli as the Latino outreach director of her campaign (effectively
poaching her from the organization now run by Jimenez).
Frank
Sharry, executive director of America's Voice hailed the announcement
as "another powerful indication that the Clinton campaign gets how
important Latino voters
are in the 2016 election and that immigrant justice is key to winning
over a community that will prove decisive in numerous swing states," who
was quoted by Fusion .
Praeli has served as Clinton’s immigration hawk. Most recently, she took Jeb Bush to task over using the term “anchor baby.”
“If
Republicans continue to wonder how to label these children, Hillary has
already made it clear to them: They are not ‘anchor babies.’ They are
babies. They are our
neighbors. They are our families. They are part of our communities.
They are American citizens. Period,” Praeli said in a statement .
Yet
Praeli's credentials have not shielded her new boss from the criticism
of her former colleagues at United We Dream. While the group also
denounced Jeb Bush’s “anchor”
baby comment as a slur this week, they went after Clinton, too. In
addition to criticizing her comments, the pointed to one of Clinton's
financial backers, a prison corporation, which involved in managing
immigration jails.
Asylum Seekers Deserve Lawyers, Democrats Need Debates, Says O'Malley
Democratic
presidential hopeful and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley thinks
that he can out-progressive Hillary Clinton in at least two ways. First,
he has released
a detailed six-page immigration plan that includes controversial items
like health care subsidy eligibility for undocumented immigrants.
Second, his campaign says that he showed stronger support for the
unaccompanied minors during the spike in crossing last
summer.
At
a campaign event in Los Angeles on Thursday, O’Malley told the Latin
Times that his first instinct was give them due process, not expedited
removal.
“I
think they certainly deserve lawyers to make that case for asylum for
them,” he said, after addressing the 2015 National Convention of the
Young Democrats of America.
Unlike
in criminal proceedings, suspected immigration violators don’t have the
right to a defense lawyer. Immigration rights advocates say that many
bona fide asylum seekers
are deported not because their claims are weak, but because they fumble
their testimony and don’t have access to attorneys. Clinton has said
that asylum seekers need “more resources” but hasn’t gone as far as
endorsing full legal representation. Other aspects
of their policy are more similar.
“We’ve
had such a broken immigration system for so long that we’re in danger
of creating a whole subclass of people and we need to wipe the slate
clean. We need to give
people a pathway to citizenship and move forward here,” O’Mally said,
adding “Donald Trump talks about self-deporting 11 million new
Americans. I can only imagine that his climate change proposal would be
to build an arc and start marching in animals.”
O'Malley Speaks To Puerto Rico Delegate
“I’d
like to give you my vote... but I can’t because I’m from Puerto Rico,”
said Kevin McClintock, 20, who attended O'Malley's Thursday speech at
the Young Democrats of
American Convention. McClintock, a Georgetown student, also supports
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton citing the "attention"
she gave the Territory during her 2008 campaign. Hillar pins (see
center left) were worn by many at the event. Latin
Times / Cedar Attanaiso
Clinton
and O’Malley agree on many aspects of immigration policy, like offering
a pathway to citizenship for the country’s 11.2 million unauthorized
immigrants and using
executive action to shield many of them from deportation.
But
there are some differences, and O’Malley is eager to highlight them in
debates against his opponents, including Vt. Senator Bernie Sanders.
O’Malley and Sanders have
openly criticized the DNC for limiting the primary debates to 6 events
held late in the electoral calendar. Their campaigns have discussed
possible alternatives to the current debate timeline, including bucking
the DNC rules.
“I’d
like to see us start having debates. [...] In the absence of debates
then we’re left with the daily news about our contest being all about
questions that only [Hillary
Clinton] and her lawyers can answer,” he told reporters in Los Angeles,
referring to the e-mail scandal that has dogged the former Secretary of
State’s campaign.
When
asked if he’d defy DNC rules barring unsanctioned debates he said to
“stay tuned,” adding that he hoped party officials would reconsider
their debate schedule at
meetings in Minnesota next week.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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