Bernie Sanders on Immigration Democratic primary challenger; Independent VT Senator; previously Representative (VT-At-Large)

Sub-sections under Immigration:
• DREAMers
• Voting Record
• Other issues under Immigration

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.

Restore legal status of those eligible under DACA

I'll stand with 11M undocumented immigrants in this country

Xenophobia demonizes immigrants; refugees aren't criminals

SANDERS: No, because we'll have strong border protections. But the main point I want to make is that what Trump is doing through his racism and his xenophobia, is demonizing a group of people. And as president, I will end that demonization. If a mother and a child walk thousands of miles on a dangerous path, in my view, they are not criminals. They are people fleeing violence. And we've got to ask ourselves, "Why are people walking 2,000 miles to a strange country where they don't know the language?" So what we will do, the first week we are in the White House, is bring the entire hemisphere together to talk about how we rebuild Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador so people do not have to flee their own countries.

Comprehensive immigration reform; stop attacking allies

We need humane immigration policy, not demonization

It is a serious problem, but it is not the kind of crisis that requires demonization of desperate people who in some cases have walked 1,000 miles with their children. So, it is an issue, but you don't demonize desperate people. We deal with it in a rational and humane way.

Real national emergency is creating path to citizenship

Restructure ICE; don't necessarily abolish it

• Immigration: Path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants. Restructure, don't necessarily abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
• Most undocumented immigrants who are in the country now would receive a path to citizenship under Sanders' immigration plan.
• He voted for the 2013 Senate immigration bill that proposed a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, doubling the number of border patrol officers, and providing an additional 350 miles of border fencing. (That bill did not become law.)
• Sanders would like to restructure ICE. But he has not given details and has not gone so far as to say that he thinks the agency should be "abolished," a position some of his 2020 Democratic rivals have taken.

Undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than citizens

His demonization of Latinos is racist, it's wrong, and it also happens to be factually inaccurate. Undocumented Latino immigrants commit fewer crimes in America than the general public.

Isn't it strange, however, that when we talk about terrible crimes committed in Nevada, Trump forgot to mention that, in 2017, a white man named Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and wounded 851--the deadliest shooting in modern American history.

If he is concerned about crime how come Trump didn't mention that? Needless to say, he also didn't mention the need for common-sense gun safety legislation which would lower the terrible rate of mass shootings in our country.

Comprehensive reform instead of an emergency wall

No, Mr. Trump, building a wall is not an emergency.

In terms of immigration in this country, what we need to do is not to waste billions of dollars on a wall, but to finally address the need for comprehensive immigration reform--including a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented people.

It is inhumane, and not what America stands for, that tiny children at the border have been torn away from their parents. It is disgraceful that 1.8 million young people have lost their legal protection under the DACA program because of Trump's actions. It is heartbreaking that almost 11 million undocumented people living in this country worry every day about being deported & separated from their loved ones.

The Great Wall was ok in 1600s; not so smart today

SANDERS: The focus right now has got to be to do what the American people want us to do--80% of the American people understand that we have got to restore the legal status that Trump took away from 800,000 young DREAMers--people who came to this country when they are two or three years of age--and we cannot let them be put in a position where they're subjected to deportation. So the main focus to my mind has got to be to make sure that Dreamers have legal status and a path towards citizenship.

Q: What about a deal with a border wall?

SANDERS: The bad part comes is the idea of a wall, which I thought was a great idea in the 15th century when China built the Great Wall. Not so smart today when we have technology that is much more cost effective in terms of protecting the border.

Give undocumented workers legal protections

Walmart has employed undocumented workers to clean its stores. Tyson Foods has used them to process chickens, amid many violations of laws on workplace conditions and allegations of human smuggling.

We must extend labor protections to undocumented workers. If we start giving undocumented workers legal protections, we can slow down the "race to the bottom." But that would affect big business's bottom line, and therein lies the rub.

Refugee vetting mechanisms we have now are very, very strong

SANDERS: The vetting mechanisms we have now are very, very strong. If anybody has an idea as to how we can make them stronger, let's go forward. I don't think there's any debate whether you're progressive, conservative or anybody else that we want to keep the United States safe and we want to be 100% clear that anybody who comes into this country should not be coming into this country to do us harm. Where there's a whole lot of discussion about the racist, in my view, immigration policies of the Trump administration which are based on anti-Muslim ideology, which are doing us enormous harm all over the world, something else is going on at the exact same moment.

I do not support the Minutemen anti-immigrant vigilantes

Q: Did you support the Minutemen?

SANDERS: Of course not. There was a piece of legislation supported by dozens of members of the House which codified existing legislation. What the secretary is doing tonight--and has done very often--is take large pieces of legislation and take pieces out of it. No, I do not support vigilantes, and that is a horrific statement, an unfair statement to make. I [spent] my political career fighting for workers, fighting for the poorest people in this country. Madame Secretary, I will match my record against yours any day of the week.

Base policy on uniting families, not dividing families

2007 immigration bill was a bad bill, opposed by many

I support children entering for asylum from war-torn areas

SANDERS: One of the human tragedies of recent years is children from Honduras. I said welcome those children into this country, Secretary Clinton said send them back. Honduras and that region of the world may be the most violent region in our hemisphere. Gang lords, vicious people torturing people, doing horrible things to families. Children fled that part of the world to try to meet with their family members in this country, taking a route that was horrific, trying to start a new life. Secretary Clinton did not support those children coming into this country. I did. I will not deport children from America.

Supports path to citizenship for illegals

2007: No comprehensive reform: guest workers are semi-slaves

A: I voted against that piece of legislation because it had guest-worker provisions in it which the Southern Poverty Law Center talked about being semi-slavery. Guest workers are coming in, they're working under terrible conditions, but if they stand up for their rights, they're thrown out of the country. I was not the only progressive to vote against that legislation for that reason.

Comprehensive reform with no border fence & no guest workers

A: Bernie believes America's current immigration system is broken and requires comprehensive reform. An important aspect of immigration reform, according to Bernie, is to establish some pathway to legal residency or citizenship for the 11 million undocumented workers living in the United States so that they need not work and live in the shadows.

Q: What about the border fence?

A: While he believes that border security is important for the country, Bernie doesn't believe that a fence is the way to achieve that security.

Q: What about guest worker visas?

A: Bernie believes that our visa system must protect American jobs instead of simply allowing corporations to score cheap labor via temporary work visas.

Secure borders without building a fence

• Border Security: We can and must secure borders without building a fence.
• We ought to provide a path to citizenship for people from many different countries.
• DREAM Act: Supports the path toward permanent residency for young, undocumented immigrants.
• Visa Reform: Reject the exploitation of workers and the use of visas for cheap, foreign labor. Increase opportunities for qualified individuals to take steps towards permanent residency.

Open borders for guest workers pushes down U.S. worker wages

A: Open borders? No, that's a Koch brothers proposal.

Q: Really?

A: Of course. That's a right- wing proposal, which says essentially there is no United States.

Q: But it would make a lot of global poor richer, wouldn't it?

A: It would make everybody in America poorer --you're doing away with the concept of a nation state, and I don't think there's any country in the world that believes in that. If you believe in a country called the United States or any other country, you have an obligation to do everything we can to help poor people. What right-wing people in this country would love is an open-border policy. Bring in all kinds of people, work for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them. I don't believe in that. I think we have to raise wages in this country, I think we have to do everything we can to create millions of jobs.

Since NAFTA, Mexican undocumented immigration up 185%

We as a nation have got to realize the importance of dealing not just with the issue of immigration but with the very real refugee crisis we face.

Disgraceful to shunt our workers into the shadows

Despite the central role they play in our economy and in our daily lives, undocumented workers are reviled by many for political gain and shunted into the shadows. It is time for this disgraceful situation to end. It is time to end the politics of division on this country, of politicians playing one group of people against another: white against black, male against female, straight against gay, native born against immigrant.

That is why I supported the 2013 comprehensive immigration reform legislation. We cannot and we should not even be talking about sweeping up millions of men, women, and children--many of whom have been here for years--and throwing them out of the country. That's wrong and that type of discussion has got to end.

Climate change lays groundwork for mass migration

Immigrant labor should be treated as valuable, but are not

Include dairy in H2A visas (temporary agricultural workers)

Dairy farmer's main beef with the H2-A program is that it's too cumbersome. It requires employers to file multiple applications with state and federal labor offices and they must predict sometimes years in advance how many workers they will need. Furthermore, the law requires employers to show that they put in good faith effort to recruit American workers before applying for visas for immigrant labor.

English-Only, based in xenophobia, hurts legal immigrants

The "English Only" bill mandates that all official communication by the federal government be in English. This means that members of Congress from a heavily Hispanic or Polish district, for instance, would be prohibited from communicating with their constituents in Spanish or Polish. Election, tax, and other information needed by millions of citizens would be available only in English. President Clinton indicates that he will veto this legislation, and the bill will not go anywhere--not even to the Senate. But it passes in the House by a vote of 259 to 169. 8 Republicans, 160 Democrats, and I vote against the bill.

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.

Provide legal status to the 1.8 million DREAMers

SANDERS: I think it is heartless. I think the entire Trump views on immigration is heartless. Some 80% of the American people believe that we should provide legal status to the 1.8 million people in the DACA program. And that's a program that Trump killed. The American people believe that we should move forward for comprehensive immigration reform. And Trump is moving in exactly the wrong direction. And we see the cruelty of his immigration policies when you talk about the United States government separating children from their parents. We need to move aggressively and do what the American people want toward comprehensive immigration reform.

Wall is stupid, but ok as part of deal on DACA

Sanders said that there was legislation that would give legal status to those under DACA that would give them path to citizenship. This would be in exchange for money to build Trump's much-talked-about wall which Sanders said is the "stupidest idea." Even so, he "reluctantly" voted for that legislation because he was "deeply concerned for these young people facing deportation."

Throughout the conversation, Sanders says that he stresses his concern for legal protection of DACA and said, "This is a country that has struggled from its inception that has hated from its beginning. We've got to oppose anyone who tries to divide us. We are strongest when we are working together for all of us, not just the people on top."

Support Obama's reforms on DAPA and DACA

Offer path to citizenship; waive deportation for DREAMers

Sanders generally agrees with President Obama that most of the undocumented immigrants in the country now should be given a path to citizenship. He voted for the senate immigration bill in 2013, which would have increased border security and issued a provisional immigrant status to millions of undocumented residents once some significant security metrics had been met. In addition, Sanders has supported President Obama's use of executive orders to waive deportation for some groups of immigrants, including those who were brought to the United States as children.

2007: I voted against slavery-like guest worker programs

SANDERS: In terms of 2007 immigration reform, yeah, I did vote against it. I voted against it because the Southern Poverty Law Center said that the guest-worker programs that were embedded in this agreement were akin to slavery. Akin to slavery, where people came into this country to do guest work were abused, were exploited, and if they stood up for their rights, they'd be thrown out of this country. It wasn't just me who opposed it. It was LULAC, one of the large Latino organizations in this country. It was the AFL-CIO. It was some of the most progressive members of the United States Congress.

Rated 0% by FAIR, indicating a voting record loosening immigration.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national, non-profit, public interest membership organization of concerned citizens united by their belief in the need for immigration reform. Founded in 1979, FAIR believes that the U.S. can and must have an immigration policy that is non-discriminatory and designed to serve the environmental, economic, and social needs of our country.

FAIR seeks to improve border security, to stop illegal immigration, and to promote immigration levels consistent with the national interest—more traditional rates of about 300,000 a year.

With more than 70,000 members nationwide, FAIR is a non-partisan group whose membership runs the gamut from liberal to conservative.

The ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization`s preferred position.

Rated 8% by USBC, indicating an open-border stance.

OnTheIssues.org interprets the 2005-2006 USBC scores as follows:

• 0%-30%: open-border stance (approx. 197 members)
• 30%-70%: mixed record on open borders (approx. 70 members)
• 70%-100%: sealed-border stance (approx. 202 members)

U.S. Border Control, founded in 1988, is a non-profit, tax-exempt, citizen`s lobby. USBC is dedicated to ending illegal immigration by securing our nation`s borders and reforming our immigration policies. USBC [works with] Congressmen to stop amnesty; seal our borders against terrorism and illegal immigration; and, preserve our nation`s language, culture and American way of life for future generations.

Our organization accepts no financial support from any branch of government. All our support comes from concerned citizens who appreciate the work we are doing to seal our borders against drugs, disease, illegal migration and terrorism and wish to preserve our nation`s language, culture and heritage for the next generations.

Provide lawyers and evidence for children being deported.

This bill authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ) to appoint or provide counsel at government expense to aliens in removal proceedings.