11th Democratic Primary Debate: on Immigration

Bernie Sanders: End ICE raids; they terrify kids of immigrants

Joe Biden: No.

Q: Senator Sanders?

Bernie Sanders: Of course not. When you have that process, [there's] psychological terror, and I've talked to these kids, kids are scared to death in America when they come home from school that their mom or dad may not be there, may be deported. What we need to do is to end, and I will end this on day one, the ICE raids that have been so harmful to so many people. I'm the son of an immigrant. This is a country significantly built by immigrant labor, built by slave labor and what we have got to do is appreciate each other and end this demonization and the divisiveness this coming from the Trump administration.

Bernie Sanders: Day one: legalize millions of DACA

I would end this notion for the first time in history that people seeking asylum have to be in squalor on the other side of the river, in a desperate situation. They should be able to come to the United States and have a judgment made is whether or not they qualify. I would also surge to the border immigration judges to make decisions immediately and no one would be put in jail while waiting for their hearing.

Joe Biden: Xenophobia is a disease; invest in Latinos' future

BIDEN: Anyone who shows up to be tested for Coronavirus, or gets Coronavirus treated, would be held harmless. There are certain things you cannot deport an undocumented person for and that would be one of them. We want that. It's in the interests of everyone. And those folks who are the xenophobic folks out there, it's even in their interest that that [infected person] come forward, because it keeps the spread from moving more rapidly.

Q: What about closing the Mexican border during the pandemic?

BIDEN: Our future rests upon the Latino community being fully integrated. If we do not invest in their future, everything that the xenophobes are concerned about will in fact get worse, not better. We should be embracing, bringing them in, just like what happened with the Irish immigrants after the famine, just what happened with the Italians, et cetera. We've been through this before, xenophobia is a disease.

Joe Biden: No deportations unless aliens committed a felony in the US

Joe Biden: I said that it took much too long to get it right and the President did get it right, by DACA, making sure that it tried to protect parents as well. I will send to the [Congress] immediately a bill that requires access to citizenship for 11 million undocumented folks, number one. Number two, the first hundred days of my administration, no one, no one will be deported at all. From that point on, the only deportations that will take place are commissions of felonies in the US.

Q: So to be clear, only felons get deported and everyone else gets-

Joe Biden: Period.

Q: They get to stay?

Yes, it's about uniting families. It's about making sure that we can both be a nation of immigrants, as well as a nation that is decent.