Immigrant Rights Group RAICES Action Releases Candidate Scorecard Ahead of Super Tuesday

By:
Mar 3, 2020
9:30 AM

On the morning of Super Tuesday, RAICES Action fund shared the following media release:

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Ahead of Super Tuesday and before voters go out to polls to decide who to vote for in this Democratic primary, RAICES Action released a candidate scorecard to educate voters on who their best option is when it comes to immigration.

Over the past four debates, the media has refused to ask questions about this important issue, and when they did, they ran out of time. This is unacceptable given all the non-stop xenophobic and racist attacks towards immigrants by the Trump administration. Because of that, we have decided to break down the policies to inform voters where candidates stand.

This scorecard represents the values, vision and principles that matter to us and the policies that are contained in the Migrant Justice Platform. We applaud those candidates who have made an effort to change course on immigration and to get away from the enforcement tactics that the last democratic administration, and the current anti-immigrant administration implemented.

We will update these scores as candidates’ positions evolve. We will also continue to push the candidates to improve where they fall short.

“We are asking candidates to fight against the attacks on the immigrant community through their candidacy and support the Migrant Justice Platform. We are asking them to not look away. Why? Because thousands of people have been denied asylum, thousands of families have been separated, and many are in deplorable detention conditions. DACA recipients like my siblings might lose DACA this year, and white supremacists are shaping immigration policy. What will they do to stop Trump? What will they do to stop the attacks on our community?” said Ana Maria Rea, AVP of Advocacy at RAICES Action.

Editor’s Note: This post has been updated to reflect a new grade by RAICES for Bloomberg. On Tuesday morning, RAICES sent out a grade of F for Bloomberg. Later in the day, RAICES changed the grade. Later in the evening, RAICES updated the grades again and said the following:

This scorecard is meant to be updated when candidates clarify or change their positions and be a resource for the public. We reached out to all campaigns (except for Trump’s because we  know it’s a no brainer) prior to release to ensure we had the most accurate information after we looked at all their platforms, but some of them had not gotten back to us. Here are the specific positions clarified by the campaigns:
Mike Bloomberg:
  • The former Mayor would Decouple all federal immigration enforcement from local law enforcement.
  • End all Immigrant Detention.
  • Overturn Muslim Ban.
  • Welcome Asylum Seekers and expand categories to include gender as a cognizable particular social group under U.S. Asylum Law.
  • Decriminalize working and enact the POWER Act.
  • Expand Visas.
  • Stop construction of border wall.
  • End 3-10 Year Bar.

Bernie Sanders:

  • The campaign has updated the platform on their website clarifying that the Senator believes that we must ensure Due Process and procedural fairness by making the Immigration Court system an independent Court under Article 1.
  • The Senator supports policies in the New Way Forward Act, but since it has not been introduced yet in the Senate, he is not on the record supporting the bill.
  • The Senator does believe that we should demilitarize and restructure the Customs Border Protection agency with fundamentally humanitarian mission and social service capacities.
  • The Senator does believe that we must expand reprieve and work authorization for undocumented population through executive action.

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