Rebuffing Donald Trump’s xenophobic utterances and plans for mass deportation of illegal immigrants, Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have ruled out any deportation not only of undocumented children but also adults who don’t have a criminal record.
Appearing in the final Democratic debate in Miami on Wednesday night, both Clinton and Sanders came down hard on the Republican front-runner’s campaign marked by insults and abuses, but stopped short of calling him a “racist”.
Against the backdrop of Trump’s main election plank of deporting 11 million illegal immigrants and building a wall along the US-Mexico border, both the Democratic contenders were questioned closely on how they, if elected President, would deal with the deportation issue.
Clinton began by saying that she would ensure “due process” for undocumented immigrants.
When told that Obama administration itself has deported 2.5 million undocumented immigrants over seven years, Clinton said, “I think it’s important that we move to our comprehensive immigration reform, but at the same time, stop the raids, stop the round-ups, stop the deporting of people who are living here doing their lives, doing their jobs, and that’s my priority.”
New polls, however, showed that the Trump surge is continuing among Republican voters.
A Fox News poll released on Thursday said that Trump leads Senator Marco Rubio by as much as 23 percentage points (43%-20%) in the winner-takes-all Florida that holds its primary on March 15.
A CNN poll, too, showed Trump with a 16 point lead (40%-24%).