Bill de Blasio on ICE raids: NYC mayor calls for path to citizenship
CNNWashington CNN — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the US in response to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids beginning Sunday in major cities across the country. For decades, he said, the US has had “millions and millions of undocumented folks, and they’re core to our economy at this point and they’re part of our communities.” When asked by Tapper about President Donald Trump’s motivation for the ICE raids, de Blasio said it was a political move and not about securing our borders. Deportations under Obama Asked by Tapper if former Vice President Joe Biden, also a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, needs to “answer for” the high number of deportations carried out by the Obama administration, de Blasio said “Absolutely.” “We need to be real blunt about the facts that Democrats made mistakes here, too,” de Blasio said, adding there needed to be a “very different approach.” More than 12 million people were “deported” – either removed or returned – from the US during the Clinton administration, more than 10 million were deported during the Bush administration, and far fewer – more than 5 million – were deported during the Obama administration. ICE raids Later on “State of the Union,” United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli came to Trump’s defense on those saying the President is using ICE as a political stunt. Then the day before the ICE raids were set to begin, Trump announced that he would delay the operation for two weeks to see if Congress could “work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border.” The raids will include “collateral” deportations in which “authorities might detain immigrants who happened to be on the scene, even though they were not targets of the raids.” In the past, de Blasio has called for ICE, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, to be abolished and shown support for his city’s immigrant community.