Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley conveyed his message of ending immigrant detention centers in Arizona on Thursday, while also hitting back at Donald Trump’s latest rhetoric toward immigrants.

O'Malley, former governor of Maryland, said the U.S. is currently at a crossroads, where politics are pulling the country backwards and twist American principles.

"We have heard Donald Trump say hateful things about immigrants for many, many months. We have now heard him say we should issue ID cards to Americans based on their religious faiths. This is not America. This is not our values. This is not how we are effective in the world," said O'Malley from outside Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio's 4th Avenue Jail in Phoenix.

O'Malley said he came to Arizona to end the "shameful" practice of immigrant family detention centers -- which also exists across the U.S.

"This not in keeping with the United States of America," added O'Malley. "This is not in keeping with our principles as a people. This is not how we are a moral leader in this world. And this is not how we are able to give to our children a better and more just future."

Although he is calling for the end of immigrant detention centers, O'Malley said there will be "very narrow" exceptions if an individuals poses a risk to national security or public safety. Instead of family detention centers, O'Malley wants to redirect resources to alternatives to detention.

"We should not be breaking up families, we should not be interning families," said the Democratic presidential candidate. "We are better than this as a people."

O'Malley didn't only criticize the Republican presidential front-runner, he also questioned the presidential candidates from the Democratic Party.

O'Malley noted Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had voted against comprehensive immigration reform, referring to the 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill. At the time, Sanders said S. 1639 would drive down wages for lower-income workers. Sanders has since voted in favor of the 2013 immigration reform bill S. 744. Current Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton voted in favor of S. 1639, but O'Malley criticized the former secretary of state for supporting detention centers as a deterrent to further illegal immigration.

"I say that we are a better country than this," said O'Malley, noting his state passed the DREAM Act and allows immigrants to receive driver's licenses.

O'Malley, who released his immigration reform proposals last July, reiterated his stance to issue further executive actions to keep families together and provide protections to immigrants that would have been covered with S. 744. He also spoke in favor of granting immigrants to apply for coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a policy Clinton said she disagrees with the governor. 

He added that the immigration issue is not a talking point for states with large Latino populations, but it is a national issue even in the early caucus and primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Iowa's Latino population stands at 5.4 percent and 3.3 percent in New Hampshire.

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