Democratic presidential candidate nominee Bernie Sanders says that relief for undocumented immigrants in the US would be massively extended if he were to be elected to the White House next year, even more so than with the executive actions taken by President Barack Obama.
On Monday, Sanders declared that he would ensure that the parents and other family members of those eligible for the current Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program would also be given protection, as well as other immigrants that might have had the chance to get US citizenship if the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill from 2013 had been able to get through the House of Representatives as well and actually pass into law.
“As a President, passing a legislative solution to our broken immigration system will be a top priority,” the independent Vermont senator told an immigration reform summit, which was held in Las Vegas. “But let me be clear: I will not wait around for Congress to act. Instead, beginning in the first 100 days of my administration, I will work to take extensive executive action to accomplish what Congress has failed to do and to build upon President Obama’s executive action.”
Sanders added that he supported the 2013 reform bill, albeit with some qualms over the idea of the path to US citizenship being connected to border security triggers, which he felt unnecessary and could potentially be made use of to deny or delay the process to millions of immigrants.