Dems and immigration

Following up on the earlier post regarding Terry McAuliffe's recent remarks on KPCC, Peter Daou from the Clinton campaign sends this along:

This is a statement from the campaign:

"These comments do not reflect Senator Clinton's thinking or her position on immigration."

"America has been a beacon of opportunity to generations of immigrants and we need an immigration system that respects that heritage while also respecting the rule of law. Senator Clinton supports comprehensive reform that fixes our broken immigration system, strengthens our border security and sanctions employers who break the law. She has supported legislation that provides an earned path to citizenship while respecting the enormous contributions that immigrants make and continue to make to our country."

STATEMENT FROM TERRY MCAULIFFE: "My comments on a California radio program earlier this week did not reflect Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's positions. Let me be clear, like the Senator, I support comprehensive immigration reform that respects our nation's immigrant heritage and provides an earned path to citizenship, while maintaining strong, secure borders and respect for the law."

A good enough statement as far as it goes, I suppose.

But at some point, Democrats need to start taking a strong position and use these situations not only to affirm their support for rational immigration reform, but also to speak out against the racism and immigrant-bashing that is dominating the discussion so far.

It's a moral imperative, really, especially considering the extremism the debate is engendering. And so far, the Democrats are failing.

UPDATE: Kos has more, as does Matt Stoller.