(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke rolled out a broad immigration plan that would limit deportations for undocumented people with no criminal background, create a path to citizenship for about 11 million migrants and undo restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump.
O’Rourke on Wednesday became the second contender among the roughly two-dozen Democrats to release an immigration agenda, with a series of planks that mirror Hillary Clinton’s platform in 2016. It elevates the issue among top-tier contenders with whom O’Rourke has been competing for attention and support in early surveys.
His plan comes after Julian Castro, a fellow Texan and former Obama administration cabinet secretary who’s seeking to become the first Latino president, has called for decriminalizing migration while cutting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in half and limiting its role to issues such as drug trafficking and terrorism.
Fresh surges of migrants crossing from Mexico, along with Trump’s vows for a broader crackdown and demands to build a wall along the border mean that immigration will remain a central issue through the 2020 campaign.
O’Rourke’s campaign described his proposals as “the most sweeping rewrite of immigration law in a generation,” adding that it would end “the cruel and cynical policies of the Trump administration that create chaos.” With a series of executive actions, O’Rourke would prohibit the separation of families of asylum-seeking migrants and detain only those “with criminal backgrounds who represent a danger to our communities.”
The plan also would establish a new “community-based visa category” and raise visa caps to match legal immigration with economic needs.
In addition, O’Rourke would separate immigration courts from the U.S. Justice Department, cut off federal funding for companies that operate for-profit prisons, station thousands of lawyers at the border and offer $5 billion in aid to Latin American countries to fight violence and poverty.
O’Rourke, who rose to national attention last year when he forced Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, into an unexpectedly close race for re-election, released his immigration plan as he has lost ground in the polls after garnering lavish media attention in the early days of his campaign.
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