Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tonight accused President Trump of pursuing what Sanders labeled “racist” policies and Sanders promised to undo them if he’s elected president.
“I will do everything humanly possible to end the demonization of the Trump Administration against the immigrant community in this country,” Sanders said.
Sanders said he’d take executive action to restore legal status to the so-called DACA recipients — the young adults who entered the country illegally as children. Sanders also promises he’d shut down detention centers, end all ICE raids and introduce legislation to provide a path toward citizenship for all undocumented people in the United States. Sanders spoke to a crowd of Latino activists in Des Moines this evening, mentioning his father immigrated to the U.S. from Poland at the age of 17.
“He came not speaking a word of English, he came fleeing very terrible poverty from where he came from and fleeing antisemitism,” Sanders said, “so I have a little bit of first-hand experience about what it is like to be in an immigrant family.”
Sanders was also scheduled to attend an outdoor menorah lighting ceremony in downtown Des Moines.