Hillary Clinton on Immigration

Hillary Clinton has consistently expressed support for comprehensive immigration reform throughout her political career, framing it as essential to upholding American values and fixing a broken system. Her core position involves introducing legislation within the first 100 days of her presidency that would provide a pathway to full and equal citizenship for many undocumented immigrants already present. This approach emphasizes treating those who come to the country with dignity, addressing the family visa backlog, and focusing enforcement resources on individuals who pose a violent public safety threat, rather than separating families.

Her stance has shown evolution over time, notably softening from earlier positions where she expressed strong opposition to undocumented immigration and resisted in-state driver's licenses for undocumented individuals. More recently, she has also focused on the need for fairness within legal immigration pathways, expressing concern that certain temporary foreign worker programs, like the H-1B visa system, can be used by corporations to underpay workers and degrade labor standards for U.S. workers. She also pledged to defend executive actions like DACA and DAPA against partisan attacks.