"We must not be about
forcing over 10 million undocumented people, many of whom have been here for
decades, to continue living in fear and anxiety. Congress must do what the
American people want. Let us create a humane and rational immigration
system."
Highlighting the fact that
America's inhumane treatment of immigrants reaches far beyond the despicable
behavior of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—an agency that
a growing
number of citizens and lawmakers have said they want to abolish—Sen.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) argued in a series of tweets on Tuesday that Congress
must go further and "abolish the cruel, dysfunctional immigration system
we have today and pass comprehensive immigration reform."
"That will mean
restructuring the agencies that enforce our immigration laws, including
ICE," Sanders wrote, noting that he opposed the establishment of ICE in
2002. "We must not be about tearing small children away from their
families. We must not be about deporting DREAMers, young people who have lived
in this country virtually their entire lives."
Advocacy groups and activists
celebrated Sanders' Twitter statement on Tuesday as a testament to the strength
of the grassroots movement pushing for far-reaching reform that would both end
the Trump administration's barbaric practices and confront the systemic
cruelty of the American immigration system that existed long before
Trump arrived on the political scene.
"Bernie calls for
abolishing our entire immigration system, which is honestly way further to the
left than solely abolishing ICE," Max Rivlin-Nadler, immigration and
criminal justice reporter for The Appeal, argued in
response to Sanders' statement. "Which, I know, is not what people who say
'abolish ICE' only want—they too want to change our entire immigration system.
Just saying that this possibly encompasses an even broader and more
transformative change, albeit under a less catchy chant."
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