Warren: Immigration Raids Are ‘Wrong’; She Says She’ll Stop Them

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Elizabeth Warren says if she’s elected president, she will push Congress to expand legal immigration; and meanwhile, she’ll do what she can on her own to stop deportations of people who are here illegally.

“I will do what I can do as president all alone. And that means I will make sure that these raids that sweep through our neighborhoods stop. We will not engage in this kind of deportation. It is wrong,” Warren told a CNN-sponsored town hall Thursday night.

Warren said immigration makes the nation stronger:

We need to expand the legal immigration. And now let’s talk specifically about DACA.

I spent a lot of time right here in Nevada with mixed status families. And I heard the stories of what this is like, even from people who have their own citizenship, what it’s like to come home in the evening and to call out and not be sure if your father will be there, if your grandmother will be there, if your auntie may have been picked up by an immigration raid. That has to stop in America.

I support DACA. But that is not enough. We need a pathway to citizenship for all of our neighbors, friends, and loved ones who are here.

Now, two things about this. The first, I will do what I can do as president all alone. And that means I will make sure that these raids that sweep through our neighborhoods stop. We will not engage in this kind of deportation. It is wrong.

But second, in order to create a path to citizenship, we have to have Congress. That’s something the president is not allowed to do alone. So to create that path to citizenship, I want everyone here to think about this, what are going to be the obstacles? Because you know me, I not only have a plan to do what I want to do, I have a plan to get it done.

And on immigration reform, the serious question is, for all of the senators, including Senator Sanders, who still supports keeping the filibuster, you’re going to have to find 60 votes to get it done. My view is, if Mitch McConnell tries to do to me what he did to Barack Obama and that is to try to block whatever you’re trying to do, then I’m all for rolling back the filibuster and that means we could get immigration reform on 50 votes, which is a lot more likely to make it happen.

I have a plan for immigration reform and a plan to get it done.

In a recent letter to the American public, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement explained:

ICE makes targeted arrests every day; ICE does not conduct “raids.”

ICE does not conduct raids or sweeps and does not operate roadblocks or checkpoints. The use of these terms evokes images of indiscriminate enforcement actions taken without probable cause. Nothing could be further from the truth.

ICE focuses its limited resources first and foremost by targeting those who pose the greatest threat to public safety and border security, and our officers make arrests every single day. ICE does not target aliens indiscriminately; the agency conducts investigations and gathers intelligence on specific individuals and targets them for immigration enforcement based solely on their violations of federal law.

Targets are most frequently those who were previously arrested on criminal charges or have blatant disregard for U.S. immigration laws. The agency’s arrest statistics clearly reflect this. Nationally, approximately 90 percent of all people arrested by ICE during fiscal year 2019 either had a criminal conviction, a pending criminal charge, had illegally re-entered the United States after being previously removed (a felony charge) or were an immigration fugitive subject to a judge’s final order of removal.

The letter also notes, “ICE officers are sworn federal law enforcement officers who enforce U.S. immigration laws created by Congress to keep this country safe.”