Teachers Union Boss Says Hillary Clinton Opposes Child Deportation, But Is That True?
Clinton, Trump, and Obama are all bad on deportation
Lily Eskelen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, told the mainstage crowd at the Democratic National Convention that, "Hillary Clinton believes in keeping families together. She believes that educators should be focused on education not deportation."
It's a great line, with one major problem: it's hard to believe it.
As The Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff reported earlier this year, Clinton was wholeheartedly in favor of deporting illegal immigrant children "on a case by case basis." And that's actually an improvement from her previous position:
In fact, as recently as 2014, she expressed support for sending undocumented children who crossed the Mexican border back to their home countries.
Immigration attorneys who represent children say Clinton can't have it both ways—given her history of support for deportation-heavy enforcement of immigration law, they're not convinced she's had a change of heart.
Clinton appeared to change course in March, telling Jorge Ramos that she wouldn't deport children. But it's hard to take her at her word, given that her opinion on the matter seems to change based on who she is talking to.
Would the Clinton administration treat immigrant children better than the Trump administration? Perhaps, but only because Donald Trump is uniquely horrifying on immigration issues.
Besides, Clinton wouldn't be the first Democrat to talk a big game about having a humane deportation policy and then failing utterly to live up to expectations, of course. President Obama, in fact, has deported record numbers of illegal immigrants.
This post has been updated to reflect Clinton's latest position on deportation.