In an apparent effort to out-virtue-signal one another, Democratic Presidential Nominee front-runners, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden unleashed a smorgasbord of "illegal immigrant"-pandering ideas.

"Joe Biden has lost his mind..." was the initial response by Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after Biden suggested he would not deport illegal aliens convicted of drunk driving if he were president.

As The Daily Caller reported, the former vice president said Monday that, if elected to the White House, he would issue an executive order that would require ICE to only remove individuals who have committed felonies.

"He was in Congress for decades. He knows how this works. There is no prerequisite, you commit any crime … be removed from the United States if you’re here illegally. That is the way the law is written in statute,” the former ICE chief said Wednesday. “I oversaw the removal of one million illegal aliens. Over 100,000 of them were DUI convictions, and many didn’t have convictions at all. They were just here illegally. So his tune has totally changed,” he said. “We didn’t hear a peep from him back when he was vice president on this issue.” “Whether it’s a misdemeanor or a felony, it is a public safety threat and over 10,000 lives a year are lost. So, again, ICE is going to enforce this law,” Homan concluded.

However, compared to other contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, Biden is still considered one of the moderate voices on immigration. While Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have openly called for the decriminalization of illegal immigration and a moratorium on deportations.

As Summit News' Steve Watson reports, as President Trump continues efforts to divert funding to build a new border wall, Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Monday that he would consider ‘tearing down’ the existing border barriers if he is elected.

Sanders reasoned that the current barrier on the US-Mexico border is ‘symbolic’.

He claimed that tearing the wall down “may be” the correct thing to do, adding “but you know it’s how much is it going to cost to tear it down?”

“Should you do that, tear it down? I don’t know, maybe the answer is yes.” Sanders said.

“That’s something you’re willing to consider? You’re willing to consider tearing down existing fencing between the U.S. and Mexico?” David Noriega further asked Sanders.

“Yeah, I’ll always look,” Sanders replied, adding “but again if it’s going to cost me billions of dollars to tear it down, I’d rather invest that maybe in the needs for child care in this country.” “But it’s, you know, we can look at it.” he concluded.

Sanders also promised to put a stop to “99% of deportations”, even including for violent criminals. But Biden would not be outdone, vowing to end all illegal immigration detention "across the board":

Joe Biden: end all illegal immigration detention “across the board” pic.twitter.com/YkwHiNJYcC — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 20, 2020

Notably, ICE conducted a higher rate of deportations under the Obama administration than in the Trump administration.