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Tom Steyer on ImmigrationDemocratic Presidential Challenger; CEO |
Tom Steyer: This president is not against immigration. He's against immigration by non-white people. This is his attempt to divide us on race. Since the very first day he started running for president, he's been vilifying non-white people. He's been trying to inflame his base & scare them that if white people lose control of this country, that they're going to lose control of their lives. As somebody who lives in a majority-minority state, which is California, what he's doing is so wrong on so many different levels. I agree with Sen. Sanders. We have to reframe this argument completely. We have to go back to the idea that every American is worth being a full human being on every right. This is a racial argument by a racist president who's trying to divide us and who's vilifying people.
Ours is a nation of immigrants. This is a nation that leads with compassion and offers opportunity to those willing to do the hard work to build a better America. For America to flourish, this has to be a place where immigrants can flourish too, which is why I support the DREAM Act, a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in America today, would overhaul ICE, and would update our asylum policies to match our values.
STEYER: What we've seen from ICE in terms of inhumanity, this is a perfect example, but it's not the only example. I think it's absolutely critical for the USA to treat people in a humane and decent fashion. It's very obvious that this president and this administration has chosen to not only break the international laws in their treatment of asylum-seekers, but to break the basic laws of humanity. When I think about why I started the "Need to Impeach campaign" two years ago--yeah, he's a criminal; he more than has earned impeachment; but it goes much beyond this, and it goes to exactly this kind of issue. The president of the United States committing crimes against humanity like this, in our name, is something that we should end right now, certainly the first day of my presidency.