Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders promised to act on immigration reform during Thursday night’s town hall in Nevada, even if they have to go it alone. The town hall sponsored by MSNBC and Telemundo and moderated by Jose Diaz-Balart, allowed voters in Nevada the opportunity to ask questions in both English and Spanish. The forum was centered on the issues surrounding the Latino community, especially immigration.
“As president, I will do everything I can to pass immigration reform and a path to citizenship,” Sanders said two days before the Nevada Democratic caucuses. Pressed on how quickly he would propose immigration reform Sanders replied, “I’m not a dictator here; it has to do with a little bit of cooperation from the Congress.”
Clinton was asked a similar question from a woman in the audience and she responded that she would act immediately as president to repeal a law that requires undocumented people that are caught living in the U.S. illegally to wait three to 10 years before returning. “It makes no sense, it breaks up families, it is burdensome,” Clinton said to a round of applause. “We’re going to end it.”
Clinton added that under her husband’s administration the average income rose for African American and Latino families more than it did for others as part of a broad economic rebound.
Sanders was asked to explain his vote against a 2007 immigration reform bill that would have helped one million undocumented immigrants become citizens.. He cited a provision to allow guest workers into the country that he found unacceptable and “almost akin to slavery.” Sanders noted that he had backed the 2013 immigration bill, a measure he considered much improved. The bipartisan bill passed the Senate but died in the House.
Sanders went on to list his main disagreements with Bill Clinton, but agreed that overall he’d done a “pretty good” job as president. Later, he revised that to “a good job.”
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