Latino Leaders Hammer on Bernie Sanders' Immigration Record

[Cali_Democrat]

By Michael Oleaga

Ahead of Saturday's Nevada caucus, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received the endorsements of prominent Latino leaders, who also hammered on Bernie Sanders' immigration track record.

Clinton had already received the endorsements of Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julian Castro, and on during a Thursday afternoon press call, the former secretary of state officially received the support of civil rights icon Dolores Huerta and the Latino Victory Fund, a super PAC helping candidates who advocate on behalf of the Latino community.

Castro, Huerta and Gutierrez spoke in depth about Sanders' immigration stance, particularly his view of the 2007 Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill (S. 1639). According to Gutierrez, Clinton supported the 2007 bill, introduced by then-Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and the former New York senator "did everything she can" to pass the legislation. Although Gutierrez acknowledged cooperation with Sanders on other issues, the independent Vermont senator was "absent" from the most critical immigration debate and supported provisions with anti-immigrant Republicans.

"The question that Latinos have to ask themselves is where was Senator Sanders when we needed him most? Because the truth is that when at the moment when we needed someone, someone to stand up, against Republicans and Lou Dobbs ... who were dehumanizing us and in 2007 when there was a way forward ... the truth is when we needed someone to stand up, Sanders was playing for the wrong team ... I want somebody who's been playing for the right team," said Gutierrez, adding that he is happy Sanders is currently championing for comprehensive immigration reform but the memories still exist on "who let us down when we needed them."

Read more:

http://www.latinpost.com/articles/115716/20160218/latino-leaders-hammer-on-bernie-sanders-immigration-record.htm

[cascadiance]

1. He's not pro-slavery for foreign workers like they are...

And if you are going to say that that doesn't apply to them because they were voting FOR the immigration reforms in the bill and not the pro-slavery guest worker programs like H-1B and H-2B that were added in by our corporate corrupted parties, then Bernie can by the same logic saying he was voting against these programs and not against immigration reforms. If you still insist that Bernie is anti-immigration, then we can just as well say these people are pro-slavery of foreign workers too!



http://www.thenation.com/article/these-workers-came-overseas-help-rebuild-after-hurricane-katrina-and-were-treated-prison/

And also, by having these slavery programs in place, we also have less American workers employed in the lobbyists quest for making the bottom their buddies want to race to lower to fatten the 1%'s wallets more!

[Cali_Democrat]

2. You're saying Ted Kennedy's 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill was pro-slavery?

Under the bus goes the late Senator and the majority of Dems who supported the bill:

[cascadiance]

4. It looks like it was amended to included that crap.

Are you saying that Kennedy wrote the parts in that bill to include the expansion of guest worker programs as they have been defined?

Perhaps Kennedy wanted a real immigration bill, that Bernie has said OVER and OVER again that HE SUPPORTS, but the fact is that corrupt entities in both parties have tried to hijack these bills to get their CRAP in it, and now people are saying that anyone voting against that CRAP being in them is against the original content of the bill which is just plain BULLSHIT PROPAGANDA!!

Which is why I call them pro-slavery. If that is unfair, then you all should look in the mirror and see how you are being unfair in the way you are characterizing Bernie!

[jkbRN]

3. Thank you for compiling all of the info,

this narrative is completely disingenuous and not to mention, ridiculous.

[Jarqui]

5. Clinton Recycling Crap

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/10/19/bernie-sanders-cant-escape-questions-about-2007-vote-on-immigration-overhaul/

“I didn’t leave anybody at the altar,” Mr. Sanders replied. “I voted against that piece of legislation because it had guest-worker provisions in it, which the Southern Poverty Law Center talked about being semi-slavery. Guest workers are coming in, they’re working under terrible conditions, but if they stand up for their rights, they’re thrown out of the country. I was not the only progressive to vote against that legislation for that reason. Tom Harkin, a very good friend of Hillary Clinton’s and mine, one of the leading labor advocates, also voted against that.”

He added, “Progressives did vote against that for that reason. My view right now — and always has been — is that when you have 11 million undocumented people in this country, we need comprehensive immigration reform, we need a path toward citizenship, we need to take people out of the shadows.”
...
“What this legislation is not about is addressing the real needs of American workers,” Mr. Sanders said in a speech on the floor of the Senate in 2007. “It is not about raising wages or improving benefits. What it is about is bringing into this country over a period of years millions of low-wage temporary workers with the result that wages and benefits in this country, which are already going down, will go down even further.”

He made a similar comment at another point that year, saying that the bill would “end up lowering wages for American workers right now.” It was, he said at yet another point, a “bad piece of legislation” for laborers.

Not just that, they'd take American jobs.

[beam me up scottie]

6. The legislation the Southern Poverty Law Center compared to slavery?

Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States

This report, updated in February 2013, details the systematic exploitation of foreign workers who come to this country for temporary jobs under the nation's H-2 guestworker program. Based on dozens of legal cases and interviews with thousands of guestworkers, it documents how guestworkers are routinely cheated out of wages, forced to mortgage their futures to obtain low-wage, temporary jobs, and held virtually captive by employers.

In the debate over comprehensive immigration reform, various policymakers and business groups have suggested that Congress create a new or expanded guestworker program to ensure a steady supply of foreign workers for industries that rely on an abundance of cheap labor.

Congress should look before it leaps. The current H-2 program, which provides temporary farmworkers and non-farm laborers for a variety of U.S. industries, is rife with labor and human rights violations committed by employers who prey on a highly vulnerable workforce. It harms the interests of U.S. workers, as well, by undercutting wages and working conditions for those who labor at the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. This program should not be expanded or used as a model for immigration reform.

https://www.splcenter.org/20130218/close-slavery-guestworker-programs-united-states

[riversedge]

7. I see Hillary and the workers were having a bit of fun. Good for them.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

8. White Leaders Hammer on $hillary's Immigration Record

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