Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, was called out by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday for not giving Clinton’s position on sanctuary cities and illegal immigration.
Sanctuary cities have been a hot topic during the election cycle as Donald Trump has made illegal immigration and border security cornerstones of his campaign. Local authorities in such cities do not fully cooperate with federal immigration law, causing many illegal immigrants who are in custody for crimes to not be turned over to federal officials for possible deportation.
Mook dodged on this issue when Tapper asked if this is a problem.
"Well, first of all, Jake, as you mentioned, we do think this is a really important difference between both of the candidates, and Secretary Clinton has released a comprehensive plan for immigration reform," Mook said. "This is something she has pledged to do in the first 100 days."
"We cannot have a situation where anybody is coming to this country illegally and committing crimes, and so she has, as I said, put out plans to make sure that we’re removing violent criminals from this country, but that can happen at the same time that we’re not tearing families apart and that we’re making sure that hard-working people who have been here for a very long time come out of the shadows, come into the system, pay those back taxes, become citizens, and so actually our economy can continue to grow," he continued.
Tapper then referred to a quote from a Clinton campaign spokeswoman last year, who said Clinton supported sanctuary cities and defended them for years. Mook would not answer where Clinton currently stands.
"Well, I think that’s too narrow a view of the situation," Mook said. "We need comprehensive immigration reform, and part of comprehensive immigration reform is making sure that law enforcement has the tools to find these violent criminals and get them out of the country and that for people who do not have legal status right now that we put them on that path to citizenship."
"I look forward to further clarity on the sanctuary city issue specifically," Tapper responded.