Background
- Co-sponsored Senator Ted Kennedy’s 2004 bill and supported the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act;
- Co-sponsored the DREAM Act in 2003, 2005, and 2007;
- Sponsored the Legal Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act in the Senate;
- DREAMERs and immigration activists have protested at Clinton’s campaign events for her refusal to distance herself from Obama’s high number of deportations;
- In 2008, Clinton said that she opposed drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants;
- Said in an interview that unaccompanied minors who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border should be “sent back as soon as it can be determined who responsible adults in their families are.”
Campaign promises
- Support Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA);
- Advocate for “humane, targeted immigration enforcement”;
- End family detention;
- Close private detention centers;
- Promote avenues for naturalization;
- Allow families to participate in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) regardless of immigration status;
- Provide pathways to citizenship.
Background
- Son of a Polish immigrant father;
- Invited the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to Washington to testify during a Senate hearing about abusive labor practices;
- Voted for the immigration reform bill in 2013;
- Strongly criticized President Obama’s decision to delay his executive action which would postpone a large number of deportations;
- Bernie Sanders at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) conference: “Deferred action should include the parents of citizens, parents of legal permanent residents, and the parents of DREAMERs.”
Campaign promises
- Break up deportation programs and detention centers;
- “Ensure our border remains secure while respecting local communities”;
- Expand DACA and DAPA;
- Provide whistleblower protections for persons who report labor abuse;
- Stop local law enforcement from carrying out immigration duties;
- Employ “humanitarian parole” to reunite families who have been wrongly deported;
- End family detention and for-profit detention;
- Halt policies that allow law enforcement to engage in racial profiling;
- Welcome Syrian refugees.
Background
- Was the first Democratic candidate to release an extensive and comprehensive immigration plan;
- While governor of Maryland, O’Malley supported the Maryland Dream Act, which provided in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants;
- Has been supported by a number of immigration activist groups and DREAMERs organizations for the specicity of his policy and strong track record on immigration issues;
- As governor of Maryland, O’Malley allowed undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses;
- Argued for the moral obligation to accept 65,000 Syrian refugees.
Campaign promises
- Expand deferred action;
- Provide sufficient training to U.S. Customs and Border Protection;
- Provide Affordable Care Act healthcare options to DACA and DAPA recipients;
- Only use detention as a “last resort”;
- Close “inhumane detention centers”;
- Expand due process protections in the detention system;
- Get local law enforcement out of the business of enforcing immigration policy;
- Create an independent agency to set U.S. Immigration Policy;
- Protect the Diversity Visa.
Background
- Has no experience as a policy maker or elected official;
- Referred to undocumented persons as rapists, drug dealers, and criminals;
- Uses the slur “anchor baby” and refers to undocumented persons as “illegals”;
- Has claimed that a large number of terrorists may be among the Syrian refugees;
- Has blamed illegal immigration for high unemployment in black and Latino communities.
Campaign promises
- Build a wall across the southern border of the United States and force Mexico to pay for its construction;
- If Mexico refuses to pay for the wall, the U.S. will utilize a number of economic threats including “[impounding] all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; [increasing] fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them)”;
- Making the requirements for asylum-seekers and refugees more stringent;
- Deport all undocumented persons living in the United States;
- Defund sanctuary cities;
- End birthright citizenship;
- Triple the number of ICE agents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Background
- Born in Canada to a Cuban father and an American mother;
- Previously advocated for path to legalization for immigrants, but changed his stance during his bid for the presidency;
- Supported high-skilled immigration and an increase in the number of green cards until his bid for the presidency;
- Has said, “We should prioritize refugee status for religious minorities, especially Christians, Jews, and others being systematically tortured and murdered by radical Islamists in Iraq and Syria today”;
- Previously supported birthright citizenship and then went on to later change his stance.
Campaign promises
- Build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border;
- Triple the number of Border Patrol officers;
- Allow ICE agents to permanently detain of undocumented immigrants;
- End sanctuary cities;
- Allow local law enforcement to take on immigration issues;
- Criminalize people who overstay their visa;
- Prevent any undocumented person from receiving government benenifits;
- End birthright citizenship;
- Insists on biometric tracking of undocumented persons that would allow the government to track people like “Amazon and Fedex can track packages.”
Background
- Son of Cuban immigrants;
- Co-authored a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform plan in 2013 that would have fostered a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants but later dropped his support when the plan was stalled in the House of Representatives;
- Was seen by many as one of the few Republicans in the Senate who was committed to substantive immigration reform but began to distance himself from a number of his policies when other conservative candidates and conservative media criticized him for being soft on the issue;
- Has expressed support for undocumented immigrants applying for green cards.
Campaign promises
- Take “existing visas away from family-based immigration and toward work- and skill-based immigration”;
- Recruit highly-skilled immigrants who will help “improve the middle class”;
- Provide employers with methods to check the legal status of new hires;
- Support an entry and exit tracking system to prevent visa overstays;
- Those who qualify for a temporary nonimmigrant visa would have to pay a fee and a fine, have a background check, and prove a proficiency in English. They would not qualify for government benefits.
Key:
Affordable Care Act (ACA): Often referred to as Obamacare, the 2010 legislation that allowed for the expansion of Medicaid to cover uninsured Americans.
Birthright citizenship: The citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to anyone born in a country or territory regardless of the citizenship of the parents.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP): The federal law enforcement agency responsible for regulating trade and immigration.
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP): A program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provides low cost insurance to families with children; in some states coverage may also extend to pregnant women.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act: A 2007 bill that would have provided a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented residents in the U.S.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA): A 2012 policy out of the Obama administration that allowed some people who entered the U.S. as children to obtain a work permit and avoid deportation.
Deferred Action for Parents of American and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA): A policy that would provide deferred action to the undocumented parents of children born in the U.S.
Deferred action: An immigration status granted by the executive branch that can delay deportation
Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM Act): Legislation that provides protection which would permit some immigrant students who have grown up in the U.S. to apply for temporary legal status and to eventually receive legal status and become eligible for U.S. citizenship, if they enlist in the military or attend college. This act also provides some access to in-state tuition rates.
DREAMERs: Refers to the people between the ages of 15 and 30 who meet the requirements of DACA; the young people who grew up in the U.S. and were brought to the country as children. The term has also come to represent the political, economic, and social aspirations of the group.
Diversity Visa: A Visa drawn from random selection and provided to people from regions with low immigration rates to the United States.
Green Card (United States Permanent Resident Card): A document that identifies an immigrant as a lawful resident of the U.S. and allows for employment in the country.
U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE): The federal agency out of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that is responsible for investigating and enforcing border policies; the agency tasked with removal, detention, and deportation of undocumented residents in the U.S.
Legal Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act: Allows “lawfully residing” immigrant children and pregnant women to enroll in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Medicaid: Federal and state healthcare program for low income families and individuals and some individuals with disabilities; recipients must be citizens of the U.S. or lawfully residing in the country.
Nonimmigrant visa: A document given to people with permanent residence outside the U.S. but who will be in the U.S. for a short period of time for things like tourism, work, etc.
Sanctuary city: A city that does not prosecute undocumented persons living in that city.
Visa: A document that allows temporary entry to a country.
Birthright citizenship: The citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to anyone born in a country or territory regardless of the citizenship of the parents.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP): The federal law enforcement agency responsible for regulating trade and immigration.
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP): A program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provides low cost insurance to families with children; in some states coverage may also extend to pregnant women.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act: A 2007 bill that would have provided a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented residents in the U.S.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA): A 2012 policy out of the Obama administration that allowed some people who entered the U.S. as children to obtain a work permit and avoid deportation.
Deferred Action for Parents of American and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA): A policy that would provide deferred action to the undocumented parents of children born in the U.S.
Deferred action: An immigration status granted by the executive branch that can delay deportation
Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM Act): Legislation that provides protection which would permit some immigrant students who have grown up in the U.S. to apply for temporary legal status and to eventually receive legal status and become eligible for U.S. citizenship, if they enlist in the military or attend college. This act also provides some access to in-state tuition rates.
DREAMERs: Refers to the people between the ages of 15 and 30 who meet the requirements of DACA; the young people who grew up in the U.S. and were brought to the country as children. The term has also come to represent the political, economic, and social aspirations of the group.
Diversity Visa: A Visa drawn from random selection and provided to people from regions with low immigration rates to the United States.
Green Card (United States Permanent Resident Card): A document that identifies an immigrant as a lawful resident of the U.S. and allows for employment in the country.
U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE): The federal agency out of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that is responsible for investigating and enforcing border policies; the agency tasked with removal, detention, and deportation of undocumented residents in the U.S.
Legal Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act: Allows “lawfully residing” immigrant children and pregnant women to enroll in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Medicaid: Federal and state healthcare program for low income families and individuals and some individuals with disabilities; recipients must be citizens of the U.S. or lawfully residing in the country.
Nonimmigrant visa: A document given to people with permanent residence outside the U.S. but who will be in the U.S. for a short period of time for things like tourism, work, etc.
Sanctuary city: A city that does not prosecute undocumented persons living in that city.
Visa: A document that allows temporary entry to a country.
