CNN’s Symone Sanders: U.S. Efforts to Stop Illegal Border Crossings ‘Harkens Back’ to Times of Slavery

Monday on CNN’s “The Lead,” Symone Sanders, the press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 2016 presidential campaign and a CNN contributor, likened the efforts to stop illegal border crossing at the U.S.-Mexico border to what the country did “during times of slavery.”

Sanders charged the illegal immigrants are separated, “young people from their parents.” That she said was similar to times of slavery in America.

“I don’t think it could work as a deterrent,” Sanders said. “But what it’s doing is demonstrating that the America who we say we want to be is not, in fact, America that we actually are. Look, Sen. Kamala Harris, when the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Nielsen, was in fact before the Judiciary Committee a couple of weeks ago asked her about this particular policy, and specifically asked about the individuals who were charged with separating these young people from their parents — how are they being trained, and were they, in fact, being trained?”

“And what we’ve seen in transcripts from mothers and family members who have lost — who have had their children ripped out of their arms at the border, it seems as though training is not taking place,” she continued. “And so, I hope Sen. Kamala Harris gets answers to her questions, but this is a cruel and unusual policy, and this is a policy that harkens back to what America did during the times of slavery, when they took children, and they separated families from their mothers and fathers from folks who are being sold into slavery. So, if we really want to be better, we better start walking the walk.”

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