Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton broke with the Obama administration and criticized the recent raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which she said worsened an already tense situation.

Speaking at the Iowa Brown and Black forum on minority issues on Jan. 11, the former secretary of state minced no words as she second-guessed President Barack Obama's tough approach on the issue.

"I do not think the raids are an appropriate tool to enforce the immigration laws," Clinton said bluntly. "In fact, I think they are divisive, they are sowing discord and fear."

Raids Criticism

The controversial raids carried out earlier this month have drawn widespread criticism from immigration activists and leaders in the Latino community, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) told the Huffington Post that it was investigating what it called possible violations of the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against illegal search and seizure in connection with the incidents.

"Our review of the cases suggests that ICE used tactics during the raids that potentially are illegal and violate the constitution and that in several of these cases it appears that proper consent was not obtained to enter the houses," SPLC attorney Eunice Cho told the publication.

At her Iowa appearance, meanwhile, Clinton was adamant that it was important not just to uphold immigration law, but also how authorities go about that effort.

"We have laws and we must be guided by those laws," she said. "but we shouldn't have armed federal officers showing up at peoples' homes, taking women and children out of their beds in the middle of the night."

Clinton: Fix Immigration System, Help Central America

In a separate statement, Clinton also addressed the problem of unaccompanied undocumented minors, advocating for government-funded counsels for such children. The former New York senator also supports a long-term, comprehensive fix to asylum and refugee programs that would include more officers, translators and immigration judges, her campaign noted, according to Reuters.

And an investment in development in Central America was also part of solving the U.S. immigration crisis, Clinton argued. "If the United States takes the lead in organizing a regional coalition to respond to this crisis, I believe we can make a serious difference," she noted in her statement.

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