Immigration Reform 2016: Here's A Glimpse at How Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Differ on Immigration
With a Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump general election match-up all but set for this November, more attention is being given to how much the two candidates differ on the issues that have most dictated the campaign season.
The issue of immigration arguably stands as the most hotly contested of all, and thus far the views expressed by the two couldn't be more different.
Trump Takes Hardline Stance
In the case of Trump, recently declared the presumptive Republican nominee, the New York businessman has taken on a hard-line stance on the issue, deriding Mexicans as early as the official launch of his campaign as criminals and drug dealers.
Since then, Trump has vowed to deport millions of immigrants if he is elected and build a massive wall along the southern border he insists the Mexican government will pay for to further keep them out and tripling the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The unwavering, hard-line stance could prove to have consequences for Trump and the entire GOP. A recent Washington Post-Univision poll found that four out of every five Latino voters now has a negative image of him.
In addition, former Mexico president Vicente Fox recently compared Trump to Hitler and insisted he would not pay for that "fu**ing."
Fox later added, "He has offended Mexico, Mexicans [and] immigrants. He has offended the Pope. He has offended Chinese. He's offended everybody."
Even more recently, Trump was forced to have to scale a wall to enter one of his own campaign events in California after protesters turned out in droves to raise their voices against his proposed policies, with immigration being chief among them.
Clinton Pledges Support for DAPA
Meanwhile, during a recent speech in California Democratic front-runner Clinton reaffirmed her pledge to comprehensive immigration reform, vowing to keep all of President Obama's executive actions on the issue in place and putting an end to family detention if she emerges as his successor.
While branding Trump a "loose cannon," Clinton also reiterated her support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DAPA), which gives undocumented immigrants who entered the country before their 16th birthday an opportunity to obtain a two-year work permit and avoid deportation.
"This [immigration reform] is at the top of my list," she previously declared during a MSNBC/Telemundo town hall. "It's going to be introduced, and then I'm going to work as hard as I can to make sure we get it moved through the congressional process."
Liberal-minded Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is the only other still active presidential candidate and he too has pledged his allegiance to a plan of comprehensive reform.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com