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Bernie Sanders slammed Hillary Clinton for her call to send back Central American child migrants. | AP Photo Clinton, Sanders spar on immigration

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders engaged in an extended back-and-forth over immigration, including with jabs at each other's Senate voting record.

When Clinton hit Sanders for voting against an immigration reform bill in 2007, the Vermont senator sought to explain it as a moral decision, hitting Clinton right back for her call to send back Central American child migrants.

“I voted against it because the Southern Poverty Law Center, among other groups said that the guest worker programs that were embedded in this agreement were akin to slavery, akin to slavery. Where people came into this country to do guest work were abused, were exploited and if they stood up for their rights, they were thrown out of this country. So it wasn’t just me who opposed it. It was LULAC, one of the large Latino organizations in this country, it was the AFL-CIO some of the most progressive members of the United States Congress," he said, remarking as he had done earlier in the debate that the country has "got to stand up to the Trumps of the world who are trying to divide us up" and provide a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Clinton responded to the child migrants remark by saying that she "made it very clear that those children needed to be processed appropriately, but we also had to send a message to the families and the communities in Central America not to send their children on this dangerous journey in the hands of smugglers."

"And with respect to the 2007 bill, this was Ted Kennedy’s bill," she said, referring to the late Massachusetts senator. "And I think Ted Kennedy had a very clear idea about what needed to be done, and I was proud to stand with him.”

Sanders responded that Kennedy was the chairman of his committee, saying that he "loved Ted Kennedy" but did not apologize for his vote, citing the aforementioned groups.

"But in terms of the children, I don’t know to whom you're sending a message. Who are you sending a message to? These are children who are leaving countries and neighborhoods where their lives are at stake," he said. "I don’t think I would use them to send a message. I think we welcome them into this country and do the best we can to help get their lives together."

Clinton said that was not the case, remarking that the Obama administration needed to "send a clear message because we knew that so many of these children were being abused, were being treated terribly."