“The criminalization of people coming across is part of the reason we have the cruelty and chaos at the border today,” Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, said in an interview. “The imposition of a criminal penalty has led to detention, to separation, and is counterproductive. We can accomplish this in a much more effective, much more compassionate, and less expensive way.”
O’Rourke, a fellow Texan who campaigned across Iowa last week, outlined a vision similar to the 2013 immigration overhaul that passed the Senate with unanimous Democratic support but died in the GOP-led House. O’Rourke said he wants to turn young “dreamers” into Americans, give their parents legal status, end ICE roundups and deportations of “people who pose no threat to their community,” and raise visa quotas.
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota last week called the 2013 immigration bill “a great model” for reshaping the system. She and like-minded moderates aren’t signing on to the push to scrap ICE, which was set up in 2003, and reassign its functions.
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