Immigration Dominates Democratic Debate

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders speak during the Democratic debate in Miami on Wednesday night.

Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, speak at the Univision, Washington Post Democratic presidential debate at Miami-Dade College, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Welcome to Miami, indeed.

The Democratic presidential candidates debated Wednesday in Miami, where the conversation shifted to issues of high importance to the Latino community, which is expected to make up a significant portion of the electorate in Tuesday's Florida primary.

Amid well-trod ground that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have frequently addressed as recently as Sunday's debate in Flint, Michigan, was a new, focus on immigration, climate change, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Univision hosts Maria Elena Salinas, Jorge Ramos and the Washington Post's Karen Tumulty opened with a series of blunt questions on Clinton's use of a private email server and the subsequent congressional and FBI investigations that have dogged her campaign.

Clinton laughed off a question from Ramos over whether she would drop out of the race if the investigations resulted in an indictment, as many Republicans have called for since it was revealed that some of her emails contained classified information.

"I'm not even answering that question," she said, after repeating her claims that none of the information that has been identified as classified in the investigation was marked as such at the time.

Republicans, whose primary has been far more tumultuous, were mentioned infrequently in Wednesday's debate, although both candidates were pressed – and declined – to call GOP front-runner Donald Trump a racist.

Clinton instead called Trump's rhetoric "un-American," and Sanders pointed to Trump's active participation in the so-called birther movement that claimed President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii.

"Nobody has ever asked me for my birth certificate," Sanders said, pointing to his hand. "Maybe it has something to do with the color of my skin."

But it was an exchange a few minutes later between Clinton and Ramos that may have been the most revelatory of the night.

After playing video of Clinton at a Univision-hosted town hall in January, Ramos asked her if she would promise not to deport immigrant children or those without a criminal record.

At first, the former secretary repeated past answers about using due process to ensure immigrants get a fair hearing and drew a distinction around those children, especially those fleeing violence in Central America, who would qualify for refuge under U.S. and international asylum laws.

But Ramos pushed, repeating the question several times until Clinton dropped the equivocation.

"I will not deport children," she said. "I will not deport children. I do not want to deport family members either."

To follow through on such a promise, which Sanders agreed to as well when Ramos turned to him, would be a major change in U.S. policy and is one of the first significant breaks Clinton has made with the Obama administration, which has been heavily criticized from those within the immigration advocacy community for conducting raids and the 2.5 million deportations that have earned Obama the epithet, "deporter in chief."

Both candidates were also pressed to answer how they would combat climate change, an issue that has gotten short shrift in previous debates on both sides. But in Miami, the issue is tougher to ignore: More than two dozen mayors around Florida joined in sending an open letter to the candidates asking them to address a problem already impacts Miami and could devastate the state's coastline within a few years.

but rather than asking for policies – on which they largely agree – the moderators questioned them on how they would make progress in the face of expected opposition from Republicans, who are almost certain to keep their majority in the House next year.

Sanders said his plan was the same for climate change as for any of the other policies he has proposed that have been called unrealistic: his political revolution.

"We need a political revolution, when millions of people stand up and say their profits are less important than the long-term health of this country."

He advocated a tax on carbon, while Clinton boosted some of the Obama administration's advances in international cooperation and clean power plan.

Still, short of a few fiery moments, the debate was largely free of acrimony. And while Sanders revisited his attacks on Clinton over her paid speeches to Wall Street corporations, many of his favorite economic topics were largely relegated to his opening and closing statements.

Nor is it likely to vastly reshape the race in the coming days. Neither candidate had a major stumble, and neither delivered a knockout punch.

While polls show Clinton with a vast lead over Sanders in the Sunshine State and solid advantages in the other March 15 contests, Tuesday's results in Michigan have added a new layer of uncertainty to the race.

Wednesday's debate did little to change that. Source:/usnews.com/news/