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Hillary Clinton hugs a young immigrant at a campaign event in Nevada. | AP Photo Sanders surrogates rip Clinton on driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants

Ratcheting up the rhetoric another notch ahead of Thursday's debate and next week's New York primary, Bernie Sanders’ campaign on Tuesday turned its focus back to Hillary Clinton’s past opposition to driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants.

During a conference call organized by the Sanders team, an array of activists, public officials and an undocumented farm worker supporting the Vermont senator laid into Clinton’s record on immigration writ large.

In particular, the call’s stated purpose was to center on Clinton’s 2007 stated opposition to then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s proposal to allow undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses.

Jackie Vimo, the director of regional advocacy for the New York Immigration Coalition and a longtime backer of the licenses, noted the October 2007 Democratic debate in which Clinton said it both “makes a lot of sense” but also suggested it was not the best move for any governor to have to do. (Vimo participated in the call in her personal capacity as a former co-founder of the New York Coalition for Immigrants' Rights to Drivers' Licenses and not in affiliation with the group for which she currently serves as director of regional advocacy.)

"Well, what Governor Spitzer is trying to do is fill the vacuum left by the failure of this administration to bring about comprehensive immigration reform. We know in New York we have several million at any one time who are in New York illegally," Clinton said during that debate in Philadelphia in 2007, calling on federal action. "They are undocumented workers. They are driving on our roads. The possibility of them having an accident that harms themselves or others is just a matter of the odds. It's probability. So what Governor Spitzer is trying to do is to fill the vacuum. I believe we need to get back to comprehensive immigration reform because no state, no matter how well-intentioned, can fill this gap. There needs to be federal action on immigration reform."

Vimo also pointed to comments by Spitzer on David Axelrod's "The Axe Files" podcast last October, in which he remarked, "we heard from folks who said they want this issue gone," referring to the driver's license proposal.

The issue flared up during last month's Democratic debate in Miami, and both campaigns have sought to bolster their immigration credentials ahead of the New York debate Thursday before the April 19 primary.

"Secretary Clinton prevailed upon the governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who wanted to do right thing and provide driver's licenses to those who are undocumented. She said don’t do it, and New York state still does not do it,” Sanders said during the March 9 event.

During that debate, Sanders' campaign circulated a New York Times story from November 2007 reporting on Clinton saying that she had come out against driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants after Spitzer announced that he was dropping the plan.

Clinton had previously said in a Feb. 18 town hall sponsored by MSNBC and Telemundo that the situation had changed over the last decade.

"Back then, it was a state-by-state determination, and I'm happy that most states have understood and moved in the right direction," the former secretary of state said.