Sen. Elizabeth Warren has added a detailed plan to overhaul the nation’s unfair and outdated immigration system to her lengthy list of proposals, supporting a path to citizenship for millions, a reshaping of federal immigration agencies “from top to bottom,” and the elimination of private detention facilities, as well as immediate reversals of Trump administration actions, including reinstating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and ending “the bigoted Muslim Ban.”
“We must address the humanitarian mess at the border and reverse this president’s discriminatory policies. But that won’t be nearly enough to fix our immigration system,” Warren says in a Medium post. “We need expanded legal immigration that will grow our economy, reunite families, and meet our labor market demands. We need real reform that provides cost-effective security at our borders, addresses the root causes of migration, and provides a path to status and citizenship so that our neighbors don’t have to live in fear.”
In addition to creating a path to citizenship for the undocumented and easing the existing path for those already here legally but waiting to naturalize, Warren’s plan tackles some of the most pressing issues affecting immigration communities right now, including mass detention and out-of-control immigration enforcement agencies. Warren’s plan proposes detention only when necessary (if, for example, the “individual poses a flight or safety risk”), and a permanent ban on for-profit detention.
“President Trump and his administration are comfortable looking the other way while criminal abuses of immigrants pile up,” she states. “When I am President, I will not.” The Massachusetts senator said she’ll “reshape CBP and ICE from top to bottom,” and designate a Justice Department task force with the authority to investigate and pursue criminal abuses of immigrants. “Let there be no ambiguity on this: if you are violating the basic rights of immigrants, now or in the future, a Warren administration will hold you accountable.”
Warren’s plan further addresses the vulnerable Central American families coming to the U.S. southern border, displaced as “the result of poverty, climate change, violence and injustice. Migrants have come to our country fleeing natural disasters or conflicts that forced them from their homes.” Her plan will “commit at least $1.5 billion annually in aid to fully fund programs that target crime, disrupt trafficking, address poverty, reduce sexual violence, and enhance programs for at-risk youth in Central America and throughout our hemisphere—and I’ll rally the international community to match those funds.”
Warren’s bold plan also adopts former Housing and Urban Development Sec. Julián Castro’s proposal to decriminalize unauthorized border crossings. ”I’ll work with Congress to pass broad-reaching reform, but I’m also prepared to move forward with executive action if Congress refuses to act,” she continues. “We cannot continue to ignore our immigration challenges, nor can we close our borders and isolate the United States from the outside world. Instead we need big, structural change.” Read her entire plan here.