Live
Audio Only
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders called out Hillary Clinton at Thursday night's Democratic Party presidential candidate debate for supporting the deportation of Central American migrant children.
"When we saw children coming from these horrendous, horrendously violent areas of Honduras and neighboring countries, people who are fleeing drug violence and cartel violence, I thought it was a good idea to allow those children to stay in this country," said Sanders. "That was not, as I understand it, the secretary’s position."
In 2014, as thousands of unaccompanied children were crossing the U.S. border to seek asylum, Clinton said they "should be sent back as son as it can be determined who responsible adults in their families are.... all of them who can be should be reunited with their families."
At the debate, Clinton defended her position as a deterrent to parents considering sending their children on the dangerous journey to the United States, suggesting that the exploitation they might face on the way is worse than the violence they would face at home.
The so-called Northern Triangle — El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala — has some of the highest murder rates in the world, enflamed in part by U.S. support for dictators, coups and neoliberal economic policies.
OPINION: US Deports Fewer People in 2015 – by Outsourcing to Mexico
Clinton said she would address the immediate issue of detained child migrants by providing them counsel and expediting the deportation process. Bernie’s solution, he said, was granting citizenship.
Neither of the debaters mentioned that the United States is no longer the main deporter of Central American migrants; thanks to generous U.S. subsidies, Mexico is now catching and deporting the majority of them before they reach the U.S. border.
Newsletter
