Bernie Sanders To Take Immigration Reform Action In First 100 Days If Elected President

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders committed for the first time on Monday to prioritizing a pathway to citizenship in his first 100 if elected in 2016. The Senator made his latest campaign promise as a response to a question fielded at an immigration forum organized by The Nation and the pro-immigration advocacy organization Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM).

Before taking questions at the forum, Sanders highlighted the story of his Polish immigrant father, and outlined his vision for comprehensive immigration reform.

Sanders pledged to nationalize immigration prisons and relax rules that punish immigrants for entering the country illegally and using fraudulent identifications documents saying that "Neither should not be an excuse for denying a pathway to citizenship.”

Then, a member of The Nation’s panel asked Sanders if he would “make it a priority to fight [for] and pass comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship in the first 100 days.”

“You want the short answer? Absolutely,” Sanders said in a live video broadcast of the event.

The pledge may help assure pro-immigration voters that Sander’s focus on economic inequality won’t push their issue to the back of his agenda. But, Sanders argued, immigration reform wouldn’t pass without broadening support among the White and African American middle class.

To overcome gridlock in congress, he argued that native-born and non-Hispanic workers need to see immigrants as allies in a larger fight on wage and work issues.

“We need -- you’ve got white workers, you’ve got white workers out there who are struggling for ten, eleven bucks an hour. We need the support of the immigrant community to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour,” Sanders said.