Hillary Clinton heated up the Thursday night’s Democratic debate, defended her past
statements that Central American migrant children needed to be sent home
from the border to “send a message” to other families: Don’t come.
Wrong answer — which Bernie Sanders immediately pointed out.
“Who
are you sending a message to?” he said, reminding her that mothers and
children were fleeing Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to avoid being
murdered. “I don’t think we use them to send a message. I think we
welcome them into this country and do the best we can to help them get
their lives together.”
The
sharp exchange on refugees was a welcome break from the Democrats’
one-note squabbling over who is a progressive and who hates the banks
more. The border is a subject of manic intensity on the Republican side,
but Mr. Sanders and Mrs. Clinton have not been talking about it much.
They generally agree that President Obama’s enforcement policies have
been too harsh, and they promise to do more than he did to help
immigrants live and work without fear of deportation. On the trail,
though, they have not always led with this information.
Over
the years, Mrs. Clinton has shown an unfortunate tendency to oscillate
between harshness and compassion on immigration questions. She seems to
reach instinctively for the tougher-sounding policy before coming
around, eventually, to positions that more closely reflect American
ideals of welcome — ideals that Mr. Sanders voiced fluently on Thursday
night.
Running
for president in 2008, Mrs. Clinton gave a muddled answer to a debate
question about driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. She later
clarified — she would oppose such driver’s licenses as president — and then, more recently, decided that she supports them after all.
It was after the number of Central American migrant children at the border spiked in 2014 that she said they should be sent back
to send a message. “Just because your child gets across the border,
that doesn’t mean the child gets to stay,” she said. Now she says
children should have access to lawyers and not be held in family
prisons, but she was tripped up again by her “send a message” line.
Mrs. Clinton now has an opportunity to clarify her message: Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, introduced a bill
on Thursday that would help to guarantee due process for border
refugees. It would require the attorney general to appoint lawyers for
unaccompanied children and others who are vulnerable, like victims of
abuse or torture and those with disabilities. The Department of Homeland
Security would have to make sure that all migrants had access to
counsel, knew their rights and obligations, and understood what was
happening to them. The bill seeks to correct the appalling injustice of
refugee children facing court proceedings alone and being deported back
to grave danger at home.
The
border influx was a humanitarian emergency before it became a concocted
homeland-security crisis and political pickle. It will take courage,
and require a lot of money, for the country to stand up for the rights
of the uninvited and desperate. Volunteer lawyers and advocacy
organizations have struggled mightily to provide representation for
migrants who face the real threat of death if their asylum claims fail.
Mrs. Clinton tweeted
in favor of the Reid bill on Thursday night. If she means what she says
about herself — that she is all about tackling difficult problems and
helping those most in need — she will go all in to support Mr. Reid’s
effort, and let the world know it.
Source : The New York Times
Source : The New York Times
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