Bernie Sanders To Donald Trump: Picking On The Undocumented Doesnt Make You Tough
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) joined some 100 demonstrators outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters on Tuesday to send a message to President Donald Trump: Stop terrorizing immigrant families.
“For the last many hundreds of years, wonderful people against great odds have stood up to fight against racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia,” Sanders said. “We have fought against all of those efforts to divide us up. And our message to Mr. Trump is we are not going backwards. We are going forward.”
The overwhelming majority of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, Sanders said, are “hard-working, decent people” striving for a better life for their families.
“Our job as Americans, our job as members of Congress, is to pass comprehensive immigration reform and a path toward citizenship,” he said. “President Trump thinks he’s a tough guy because he’s taking on farm workers who make nine or ten bucks an hour; he’s a tough guy because he can throw moms and dads out of this country. Well, I say to Mr. Trump, ‘If you’re such a tough guy, why don’t you take on the insurance companies and the drug companies and Wall Street?’”
“Stop picking on the poor,” Sanders said. “Stop picking on undocumented.”
Tuesday’s rally in Washington, D.C., was organized by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, a national coalition of groups fighting for immigrant rights.
Roughly two weeks ago, Trump signed a second, scaled-back travel ban, after his first was struck down by federal judges. Last week, a federal judge in Hawaii placed a nationwide hold on key aspects of the revised ban just hours before it was to take effect.
The Trump administration has also ramped up deportation efforts and, as Reuters reports, plans to direct U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to expand the categories of immigrants they target in their raids, Reuters reports.
Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) told the crowd that too often taxpayer dollars have been spent to tear immigrant families apart and violate their civil rights.
“We are here to tell this administration that this is our country too,” she said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-immigration-rally-trump_us_58d15713e4b00705db5317e9
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That was a thing of beauty! I love to listen to him speak... so calm and measured. He's focused and on-point.
He's friendly and disarming... but you know he means business. He often SHOUTS to be heard because he's so passionate about injustices. His demeanor and sincerity are what command attention. He doesn't need to rely on distracting gimmicks or take millions from special interest groups for speeches! He does all this for free!
Man, oh man! That was great!
We need more TRUE PROGRESSIVES like Bernie Sanders!
Honest tagod... he makes me PROUD to be a liberal!
I didn't post anywhere but Facebook and Twitter for the last 11 months. I was busy with real life and I wanted to be able to customize my exposure to avoid fake news and Trump trolls - Facebook is good for that. You can choose which groups to join, keep up with news as it's happening and if you like to debate it's a veritable bonanza. Like anyplace else on the web you have to know the difference between info and propaganda but when you follow reputable news outlets and avoid those that lean too far in either direction you can't beat it for current events. And on FB when you block the trolls who follow you around they can't see your posts anymore. It really limits their ability to stalk and bully people.
I've been here since 2004 and lurked for years before that and even though I occasionally take breaks I'm not going anywhere.
