Immigration and Us: Clinton and Trumps Positions
Immigration has always been a hot topic in United States politics. However, because the formation of the U.S. revolved around people migrating over, it is a topic that can never be avoided.
With this year’s presidential campaign being among the most controversial, it is interesting to see where the two candidates stand on the matter.
The Dream Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) was first introduced in 2001. It is a piece of legislation that provided a clear process to permanent residency for undocumented youth. This piece of legislation would have been most helpful to young children/adults who are brought illegally into the United States (most of the time, with very little say in the matter) and have been of “good moral character” ever since.
DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is a policy that allows undocumented immigrants who entered the US before their 16th birthday and before June of 2007 to receive a 2-year work permit and pardon/protection from deportation.
According to the Center for Migrant Studies, there are 10.9 million undocumented immigrants in the US: The lowest since 2003.
With heavy populations, bills being proposed and talks about prevention and solution, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump take two different stances on the issue.
On one hand, Hillary Rodham Clinton is on the solution side; She understands that there can be issues or other problems that can arrive if the government begins massive amounts of deportations and sweeps. On her campaign website she lists out what can be considered as steps to solving the immigration problem: the two major things being creating reform and a clear path to citizenship for many [qualifying] immigrants, and defending President Obama’s DACA. She also explained the link between having affordable health care and the well-being of many immigrant families. Lastly, she speaks on Supporting immigrant integration: The creation of a national office of Immigrant Affairs made possible by $15 million in “new grant funding” to help rebuild the connection between communities and immigrants (English language education and citizenship education).
On the flip side, Donald trump does not nearly give as much information about his position on immigration. Mr. Trump along with his campaign team put together a series of 30 second to 1 minuet videos explaining what their supported was on various issues: When it can to immigration, the video gave little information. Mr. Trump explained that “we don’t have a country if we don’t have boarders”. He went on the say that under his administration, a wall will be built and keep illegal immigrants out.
However, he failed to explain who’s going to build the wall, how it is going to be paid for and how exactly the wall is going to work (being that people in the past have found ways to climb walls).
Even though Clinton gave very vague explanations behind some of her plans for immigration, having general numbers and a guide to how things may be ran is better than no explanation at all.
Never the less, the two candidates are striking out with some of the American population, but is hitting home with millions of others.
