WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was stumping for votes at a Nevada high school packed with Latino labor organizers, teachers, and legislators this month when the moderator turned to a subject that weighed heavily on many in the room: the huge spike in deportations under the Obama administration.
What could people expect from Obama’s vice president on an issue that had devastated so many Latino families? asked Hector Sanchez Barba, executive director of the civic engagement organization “Mi Familia Vota.” In an exchange that surprised Sanchez and others, Biden appeared to distance himself from Obama for the first time on the issue.
“You probably know where I was on that, but I am not going to give you that,” Biden said before diving into his immigration priorities. “I was vice president.”
As he seeks the Democratic nomination, Biden has tried to straddle a fine line — invoking Obama’s legacy when closely associating with the popular president’s historic gains on health care and his rebuilding of the economy while separating himself from the controversies. Perhaps, no issue has been thornier for Biden than the Obama administration’s record for removing people illegally in the country, for which Obama picked up the nickname, “deporter in chief.”
Two main questions have followed Biden since he launched his presidential campaign: What was his position when deportations started to climb? And did he do anything to try to stop them?
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