Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wants to bring back illegal immigrants who have been deported if they have close relatives living in the United States.
"The United States must do the right thing and guarantee the swiftest possible reunification of these broken families," the Vermont independent senator said in an immigration program released on Tuesday,
USA Today reports.
The platform, which goes beyond those being offered by his rivals for the Democratic nomination, seeks to keep together family units of all kinds. It also includes other protections for the estimated 11 million illegals living in the U.S., according to the report.
Key to Sanders' proposal is a Department of Homeland Security policy known as "parole in place."
In most cases, illegals who want to become official residents must return to their home country and apply from there, USA Today reports.
But DHS can grant "parole in place" status to some illegals "for urgent humanitarian reasons," allowing them to remain in the United States while applications are being considered.
The Sanders plan would ask the agency to return "wrongfully deported" immigrants.
His campaign told USA Today on Wednesday that those would include illegals who were brought to the country as children, or have spouses, children or parents who are American citizens.
While campaign officials had no estimate of how many people might be affected by Sanders' plan, a
January report from Human Rights Watch found that more than 100,000 parents of children born in the U.S. were deported from the border region between 2011 and 2012.
"This would certainly push the envelope," Marc Rosenblum of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington, told USA Today. "It's a step we haven't seen taken."
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