The roar of thousands of political animals drowned out the familiar call of the wild at Reid Park Friday night during a rally for presidential contender Bernie Sanders.
The Democratic candidate drew crowds that reportedly exceeded the 7,000-person capacity of the parkβs DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center, with organizers estimating more than 10,000 turned out to hear him speak.
Democratic candidate for president Bernie Sanders drives home a point at his rally at the Reid Park DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center, 920 S. Concert Place, in Tucson Ariz. Photo taken Friday, Oct. 9, 2015. Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
Sanders discussed for nearly an hour how he would raise the minimum wage and enact economic and criminal-justice reforms, saying income inequality in the United States hasnβt been this extreme since 1928. He called for every public college and university to be tuition-free, and said he would expand the countryβs Affordable Care Act.
But some of the loudest applause came from the crowd as Sanders discussed comprehensive immigration reform.
Bernie Sanders says the U.S. needs gun-control solutions.
He said the countryβs agricultural economy would simply collapse if an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants were deported. Sanders also said companies were complicit in illegal immigration for knowingly hiring undocumented workers and paying them what he called βslave wages.β
Sanders chastised the House of Representatives for failing to act on the Senateβs comprehensive immigration reform legislation and praised President Obama for taking steps to pass reforms through executive actions.
The 74-year-old Vermont senator briefly touched on Fridayβs college campus shootings in Flagstaff and Houston. He said the nation needs to strengthen and broaden instant background checks, as well as close loopholes that he said allow dangerous criminals to get their hands on guns.
It goes without saying, Sanders said, that everyone in the crowd is praying that the injured will make a full recovery and offering their deepest condolences to the victimsβ families. But he said Americans have to go further than offering sympathies and come together to find solutions to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals.
Joining Sanders on stage was local Democrat Rep. RaΓΊl Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who endorsed Sanders earlier this week. Sanders was a co-founder of the caucus.
Grijalva called Sanders his friend, saying he respects Sanders for not slinging mud in the hard-fought political campaign.
He praised him for fighting to fix a broken immigration system.
Sanders also brought on stage 10-year-old Bobby de la Rosa, whose family has been divided since 2009 when his mother was deported to Mexico; their story was told by the Arizona Daily Star and Arizona Public Media in βDivided by Law,β a series published in late September.
The mother lives 60 miles away, and the separation has taken its toll on the entire family, Bobby said, telling the crowd his older brother Bill hopes to become an immigration lawyer. He urged the crowd to back Sanders, saying every family has a right to live together. Sanders said he wants to reunite families through comprehensive immigration reform and amnesty.
Sanders is so far the only presidential candidate running in the 2016 election to hold a public campaign event in Tucson.
The Democratic White House hopefuls square off in the first presidential debate for Democrats, hosted by CNN, next Tuesday. Sanders is scheduled to debate with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Maryland Gov. Martin OβMalley, ex-Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.
Recent polls have Sanders in a dead heat with Clinton, and donors backing his grassroots campaign have him raising nearly as much as she has in the third quarter of 2015.
