Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is set to propose a brand new federal office devoted specifically to the needs of immigrants in the United States, according to several news sources. According to Politico, the new federal Office of Immigrant Affairs would work implement the recommendations of a task force convened by President Obama in 2014 to propose ways to better welcome new immigrants to the United States.
Clinton is said to be announcing her plan for the office on Tuesday, when she receives the endorsement of The New York State Immigrant Action Fund.
This is one in a series of major steps the Clinton campaign has made to reach out to the immigrant community. Early in her campaign, the Clinton took the unprecedented step of hiring an undocumented person for a top campaign position, when the campaign tapped Dreamer Lorella Praeli to be their Latino Outreach Director. The Sanders camp took a similar historic step when they hired Dreamer Erika Andiola to be their Latino Outreach Strategist for the Southwestern Region.
Clinton also made headlines in the lead up to the Nevada caucuses when she released an emotional ad that shows her consoling a young girl whose parents received deportation orders.
Support for immigrant communities has once again become an issue in the Democratic primary as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders compete for votes in next week's New York Primary. The Sanders campaign responded to the news today with a conference call in which they pointed to Clinton's opposition to a 2007 program that would have given drivers licenses for undocumented people in New York State. Ironically enough, Clinton's strongest denunciations of that policy came in the 2007-2008 Democratic presidential primary when Clinton was defending herself against accusations from fellow Democrats that she was too sympathetic toward the drivers license program.
The two democratic candidates will square off against each other in a debate hosted by CNN on Thursday night.