Top 5 Ways Hillary Clinton Says She Would Address Immigration as President

National Journal

By Alexia Fernandez Campbell

December 15, 2015

Top 5 Ways Hillary Clinton Says She Would Address Immigration as President 

Everyone knows what Donald Trump would do about immigration if he became president: Build a wall and close the border, pretty much. Hillary Clinton has now weighed in with her own ideas on the issue.

Dur­ing a speech this week at the Na­tion­al Im­mig­rant In­teg­ra­tion Con­fer­ence in Brook­lyn, Hil­lary Clin­ton out­lined what she would do about im­mig­ra­tion if she be­came pres­id­ent. If she keeps her prom­ises, she would go bey­ond Pres­id­ent Obama’s ac­tions in mak­ing the sys­tem easi­er for both un­doc­u­mented and doc­u­mented im­mig­rants in the United States.

Here are the main takeaways from her speech:

1. Ex­tend Pres­id­ent Obama’s de­port­a­tion re­lief pro­grams, known as DACA and DAPA

“We can’t wait for Con­gress,” she said. “Too many fam­il­ies’ fu­tures hang in the bal­ance.”

Back­ground: The pres­id­ent’s de­port­a­tion-re­lief pro­gram is on hold after a fed­er­al ap­peals court in Louisi­ana up­held a lower court’s block­ing of the pro­gram, which would af­fect 5 mil­lion un­doc­u­mented chil­dren and their par­ents. The Obama ad­min­is­tra­tion is ask­ing the Su­preme Court to re­view the case, and the next pres­id­ent could end the en­tire pro­gram by not ex­tend­ing the ex­ec­ut­ive or­der.

2. Close private im­mig­ra­tion-de­ten­tion cen­ters.

“This is a crit­ic­al gov­ern­ment re­spons­ib­il­ity and we should not be out­sourcing it to any­one else.”

Back­ground: About 62 per­cent of all beds at Amer­ic­an im­mig­ra­tion de­ten­tion cen­ters are now run by for-profit pris­on cor­por­a­tions, ac­cord­ing to U.S. Im­mig­ra­tion and Cus­toms En­force­ment data. That’s an in­crease from 49 per­cent in 2009. Im­mig­rant ad­voc­ates have com­plained that these places are es­sen­tially pris­ons that treat im­mig­rants like con­victed crim­in­als, with sol­it­ary con­fine­ment and no right to leg­al rep­res­ent­a­tion.

3. End fam­ily im­mig­ra­tion de­ten­tion.

“We have good al­tern­at­ives and we should use them.”

Back­ground: Pres­id­ent Obama had closed all but one of the gov­ern­ment’s fam­ily im­mig­ra­tion-de­ten­tion cen­ters, which civil-rights law­yers likened to pris­ons for chil­dren seek­ing refuge and asylum in the United States. But after a wave of chil­dren flee­ing vi­ol­ence in Cent­ral Amer­ica last year, the Home­land Se­cur­ity De­part­ment has opened three more fa­cil­it­ies in New Mex­ico and Texas.

4. Provide a path to cit­izen­ship for un­doc­u­mented im­mig­rants.

“If you work hard, if you love this coun­try, if you con­trib­ute to it, and want noth­ing more than to build a good fu­ture for yourselves and your chil­dren, we should give you a way to come for­ward and be­come a cit­izen.”

Back­ground: Clin­ton sup­ports meas­ures from the 2013 failed Sen­ate bill that would have gran­ted a path to cit­izen­ship for most of the es­tim­ated 11 mil­lion un­doc­u­mented im­mig­rants in the coun­try. Many Re­pub­lic­an law­makers re­fuse to sup­port a path to cit­izen­ship, known as “am­nesty.” Some do sup­port a path­way to some sort of leg­al status.

5. Make it easi­er for leg­al im­mig­rants to be­come Amer­ic­an cit­izens.

“To be able to vote in our elec­tions, to have a voice in our fu­ture, I want to take down the bar­ri­ers that are hold­ing people back.”

Back­ground: It costs leg­al res­id­ents about $700 to ap­ply for U.S. cit­izen­ship, which many have re­por­ted as a bar­ri­er to tak­ing the step. Clin­ton prom­ises to cre­ate more fee waivers so more people can af­ford it. She also said she would in­crease ac­cess to Eng­lish classes to boost their lan­guage skills, and to in­crease out­reach and edu­ca­tion pro­grams that guide people through the nat­ur­al­iz­a­tion pro­cess. There are cur­rently about 8 mil­lion im­mig­rants in the United States who are eli­gible to be­come cit­izens.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com