Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden promised during a CNN debate on Sunday that he would stop all deportations during the first 100 days of his presidency.
"In the first hundred days of my administration, no one—no one—will be deported at all," the former vice president said. "From that point on, the only deportations that will take place are commissions of felonies in the United States of America."
The answer was prompted by Univision anchor Ilia Calderón asking Biden about comments he had recently made on Obama-era immigration policy, in which he called the amount of deportations a "big mistake."
When Biden was vice president, the United States routinely deported hundreds of thousands of people from the country each year.
Biden admitted it "took much too long to get it right," but he argued the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and other choices amended the prior mistakes.
Biden also said if elected he would guarantee citizenship for 11 million currently undocumented immigrants.
"So, to be clear, only felons get deported and everyone else gets to stay," Calderón asked.
"Period. Yes," Biden said. "It's about uniting families. It's about making sure that we can both be a nation of immigrants as well as a nation that is decent."
This is not the first time the former vice president has promised to end deportations for the first 100 days of his presidency. During a CNN town hall in Nevada, Biden said he would only deport illegal immigrants who commit felonies within the United States.