2020 candidates condemn treatment of migrants at border ahead of ICE raids
Democratic presidential candidates are condemning the Trump administration ahead of expected mass raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement which will begin on Sunday.
ICE is reportedly targeting about 2,000 undocumented migrants who were ordered deported. The agency has said that, while its focus is on arresting people with criminal histories, any immigrant found in violation of U.S. laws would be subject to arrest.
Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign sent an email targeting supporters who may be impacted by the upcoming ICE raid. The email was written by Belén Sica, a DACA recipient and Sanders campaign staffer.
The email shares information about an immigrant's rights in the face of raids, such as the right to remain silent and the right to a government-appointed attorney.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden said in a speech that the president is "scaring the living devil out of everybody" with the impending ICE raids.
Speaking at the Netroots Nation conference in Philadelphia on Saturday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts pledged that she would establish a commission to investigate "crimes committed by the United States against immigrants" on her first day.
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke spoke about the administration's immigration policies in more graphic terms, describing his visit to a detention center for unaccompanied migrant children at the border.
"In Clint, Texas, just outside of my hometown of El Paso there is a border patrol station that has kept thousands of children in these cinderblock cells, toddlers as young as five months old without diapers which means they are s**tting themselves, they are s**tting on the floor — the floor that they will sleep on that night," O'Rourke said.
Democrats have universally condemned the raids, which were supposed to occur last month but were delayed by Mr. Trump.
