Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren pledged on Saturday to create a commission to investigate “crimes committed by the United States against immigrants” if she is elected president, The Hill reports.
Warren made the remarks at the progressive Netroots Nation conference while discussing the Trump administration’s latest crackdown on immigration, and conditions at detention camps on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“On my first day, I will empower a commission in the Department of Justice to investigate crimes committed by the United States against immigrants.”
Warren accused Trump of ignoring misconduct by immigration officials, adding that they are “abusing” immigrants.
“To anyone out there who’s working in this system, understand you abuse immigrants, you physically abuse immigrants, you sexually abuse immigrants, you fail to get them medical care that they need, you break the law of the United States of America and Donald Trump may be willing to look the other way, but President Elizabeth Warren will not,” the Massachusetts senator said, vowing to make significant changes in terms of immigration if she is elected president.
Warren officially unveiled her immigration plan earlier this week in a Medium post.
The presidential candidate wrote extensively about the changes she would make to the current immigration system. She called for the decriminalization of migration, arguing that those in need to be welcomed to the United States.
If elected president, Warren wrote, she will establish an Office of New Americans, in order to help newcomers integrate into the American society. She also noted that she would “address the forces” displacing migrants from their countries, tackling poverty, climate change, natural disasters, violence through comprehensive aid packages.
Warren’s remarks about immigration come as ICE prepares for a mass-deportation operation. As The Inquisitr detailed in an earlier report, armed with new funding, the Trump administration appears to be embarking on yet another immigration crackdown.
This has created problems for the Democratic Party, given that the funding was secured by a group of Democrats headed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Immigration was supposed to be a unifying issue for the Democrats. Instead, it’s driving a very public wedge between newly-elected progressives and Pelosi. https://t.co/emC8CiIeQO
— VICE News (@VICENews) July 11, 2019
Having passed the GOP-controlled Senate’s bill meant to increase funding for Trump’s immigration authorities without negotiating better conditions for those detained at the border, Pelosi is now facing intense criticism from progressive groups and lawmakers to her left.
The top Democrat and those in the Democratic Party supportive of her are seemingly taking a more aggressive approach toward their more progressive colleagues, as the feud between the two fractions continues to escalate.
Pelosi was not present at the Netroots Nation conference, where activists accused her of caving to Trump.