ISABEL ALLENDE: As a Latina, I have to ask you about immigration. On the one hand, you tried futilely- in vain- to provide DREAMers with a pathway to citizenship...the children raised in this country and who are undocumented. But on the other hand, you deported many people and, under your administration, many people- immigrant families were separated and sometimes placed in cages. What can you say with regard to that?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, you know, I think that immigration was one of the most difficult issues that I dealt with. And...keep in mind that- because oftentimes, people talk about, you know, “the Obama Administration deported a lot of people”. That wasn’t because of any new policy that I introduced. I inherited ICE and Border Patrols and the various laws that were already in place- and my goal was to change them. It wasn’t something I initiated. And… as I write about in the book, I was disappointing and unsuccessful in getting those laws changed, but that wasn’t because I didn’t try to change them. It was because the Republicans in Congress refused to vote for them. And it’s one of the reasons why, even though we weren’t able to get the DREAM Act passed, I went ahead to an executive action to pass DACA. The challenge is going to be- because I know Joe Biden believes the same thing I do- that that’s how we should approach immigration- we’re going to have to get cooperation from the Republican Party. And Donald Trump started his campaign by creating more fear around immigration. Not less. And, you know, until we can get both parties to agree on a constructive way to deal with this we’re going to continue to have problems, but at least the intention of Joe Biden and my administration is going to be to create a humane pathway for citizenship because I think that immigrants from around the world have made this country stronger, not weaker.