Marianne Williamson on Immigration

	Marianne Williamson on Immigration Author & Democratic Presidential Challenger

Calling border situation a crisis is a simply a distraction

Although there are certainly reasonable changes that need to be made in our immigration policies, the idea that we have a crisis is simply a canard. Calling our border situation a crisis is simply a means of distracting Americans from seeing who and what is really leeching our resources, who and what is really undercutting our power, and who and what is really stealing our democracy. In fact, over the last decade, undocumented immigration has been going down. Source: 2024 Presidential campaign website Marianne2024.com , Jun 6, 2023

Federal agents putting children in cages is child abuse

Gov. John HICKENLOOPER (D, CO): If you'd ever told me that this country would sanction federal agents to take children from the arms of their parents, put them in cages, actually put them up for adoption--in Colorado, we call that kidnapping-- I would have told you it was unbelievable.

Marianne WILLIAMSON: It's not just in Colorado--Governor, you're right, it is kidnapping, and it's extremely important for us to realize that. If you forcibly take a child from their parents' arms, you are kidnapping them. And if you take a lot of children and you put them in a detainment center, that's inflicting chronic trauma upon them. That's called child abuse. This is collective child abuse. And both of those things are a crime. And if your government does it, that doesn't make it less of a crime. These are state-sponsored crimes.

Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami) , Jun 27, 2019

Moral principle: open and welcoming to the stranger

Q: Do you think illegal immigration is a major problem in the United States?

A: "It's a major spiritual and moral principle of the United States that we are open and welcoming to the stranger."

Q: When did your family first arrive in the United States, and how?

A: "The story of my family and its immigration to the United States is one of those very typical, but very moving, stories of immigrants who came with very, very little and found everything."

Source: 2019 "Meet the Candidates" (NY Times.com) , Jun 18, 2019

Need to examine how US policy created border crisis

[Regarding the Mexican border]: The real crisis is not just that so many people are coming over the border. The real crisis is the human despair and desperation that has led them to take their children on their backs over hundreds and even thousands of miles of desert. Nobody does this because things are going well.

We need to look deeply at American foreign policy in Latin America and how we have contributed to situations where there was level of despair because too often in our foreign policy, just like in our domestic, our government has done more to be supporting short-term profits for major corporate interests than people.

Source: CNN Town Hall 2020 Democratic primary , Apr 14, 2019

Pathway for DREAMers; illegal immigrants without records

She supports DACA and a full path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants with no "serious criminal background." Source: Axios.com "What you need to know about 2020" , Apr 14, 2019

No one calls for open borders; stop scapegoating

Immigrants are not our enemies. I don't know any progressive who is arguing for open borders, but we are arguing for open hearts. This is so important to remember today as immigrants are often viciously scapegoated. Scapegoating immigrants, particularly Mexicans and Central Americans, is a deliberate dehumanization technique. Dehumanizing others has always been the required first step leading toward history's collective atrocities. We must stand up against it now as other generations stood up.

The deliberate attempt by some of our leaders to make Americans fear something so basic to our greatness in the name of our greatness will one day be seen as a dark, aberrational chapter in our nation's history. Those who scapegoat immigrants, like all demagogues throughout history, are demonizing others to increase their own power. The hardening of the American heart is far more dangerous than the softening of our borders.

Source: 2020 presidential campaign website Marianne2020.com , Apr 8, 2019

Full path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants

I support legislative reforms that includes a full path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who do not have serious criminal background issues. I would also work to reduce the cost of naturalization and increase resources to help people navigate that process more easily.

Children brought into the United States by their parents should not be punished for now being here. I fully support our DACA. Our dreamers represent the best about our future.

My administration would reduce the record number of detainees currently under extended DHS and ICE control. I would work to close private detention centers and family detention centers. There are far more humane options that have been proven to work.

I would speed up our process of allowing asylum seekers to come here. I would work to fund and authorize vast increases in Immigration Judges to move through our backlog of asylum seekers and other related cases.