Booker’s Plan Promises Executive Action on Immigration – NJ Spotlight

Sen. Cory Booker

As he prepares for another campaign swing through Nevada, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker announced an immigration plan that would include executive action to close the majority of federally-run immigrant detention centers and end the use of for-profit detention centers.

“When kids are being stripped away from their parents and held in cages I will not wait for Congress to end the crisis,” Booker said in a release Tuesday. “On day one of my presidency I will take immediate steps to end this administration’s moral vandalism.”

Booker announced that he would “virtually” eliminate the border detention centers and restore Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, protections for those brought to the United States when they were children, so called Dreamers.

The senator also said he would tighten controls and set higher standards for government-run facilities and phase out the use of private detention centers.

Booker was criticized last week for attending a fundraiser co-hosted by Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo. The county has a $40 million annual contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to operate an immigrant detention center. But a report from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security found unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the facility after a 2018 surprise inspection.

Booker will host an immigration roundtable in Las Vegas on Friday.