Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers: “On Immigration, Sanders' Not Who He Says He Is”

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Josh Dorner ?@JoshDorner 34m34 minutes ago
from Dolores Huerta: “On Immigration, Bernie Sanders is Not Who He Says He Is.” https://medium.com/@DoloresHuerta/on-immigration-bernie-sanders-is-not-who-he-says-he-is-b79980adff6a#.c6u35l2jc … #NVcaucus


If you’ve been following the Democratic primary, you may have noticed that Bernie Sanders has positioned himself as a champion of the immigrant community. From the letter he sent to Barack Obama last week, to the work he, his campaign, and surrogates have done attacking other candidates’ positions, you would think that he has been a lifelong champion on issues that matter to Latinos and immigrants. But here’s the truth: Candidate Bernie Sanders, advocate for immigrants, is not the same as Senator Bernie Sanders.

Let’s start with the letter he sent to President Obama. Bernie, candidate, decried the deportation raids — which he should. But in 2006, Bernie, congressman, actually voted…to create and fund two of the programs he criticizes in the letter.

Furthermore, in 2006, he voted for a bill pushed by James Sensenbrenner, one of the most anti-immigrant members of Congress, that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to be detained indefinitely pending deportation. This bill was widely viewed as a desperate attempt by Republicans to boost their reelection prospects that year by cracking down on immigrants, and the ACLU called it “inhumane.” Bernie voted for it anyway. (You’ll note that he was running for Senate — as an independent.)

In fact, in 2011, Harry Reid, and other Senators sent a letter to President Obama urging him to end the deportation of DREAMers. You can probably guess who didn’t sign that letter.

The Harry Reid letter that Sanders didn’t sign.




If you go to Bernie’s website, you’ll note that the first thing comprehensive reform is one of the main policy points on his website. Well, that’s funny. In 2007, he voted against Senator Ted Kennedy’s immigration reform bill.

Heck, here’s how much of a johnny-come-lately he is. During this campaign, he defended the vote with the same talking points.

“What I think Wall Street is interested in is seeing a process by which we can bring low-wage labor of all levels into this country to depress wages in America, and I strongly disagree with that.” -7/30/15

Here’s the kicker.

Perhaps you’re familiar with the Minutemen. You know — the anti-immigrant militias who patrol the border trying to stop undocumented people from coming to do their jobs. You would think that such a self-appointed lifelong advocate for the community would vote against anti-immigrant vigilantes. You would be thinking wrong. Bernie voted to protect them — and provided a weak excuse as to why. This point is especially egregious. Anyone claiming to be an advocate for the community shouldn’t have voted for this. Period.

I like Bernie. He’s a nice guy. I have no doubt he means well. Latinos matter in this election, and he knows it. But my question for Bernie is, where the heck was he for the last 25 years? Where was he on immigration reform? On indefinite detentions? On vigilante justice against undocumented workers? He was nowhere. That’s where.

Perhaps he’s had a change of heart, in which case, great. But why is he speaking as though we, the advocates and community members working for years to keep families together and push for immigration reform, haven’t been trying to make any progress until now? Specifically, why is he pretending like Hillary Clinton hasn’t been on the right side of this while he was on the wrong side? She’s got the track record to prove that she was in the fight with our community, Ted Kennedy, and President Obama. Bernie certainly doesn’t.

To put a finer point on it: Hillary Clinton has realistic plans to pass comprehensive immigration reform and go farther than even President Obama has gone. Now that Bernie has shown up on the scene, I want to hear — and I think Latino voters deserve to hear — specifically how he plans to get his vast-and-various plans through to make the progress that immigrant families so urgently need. Because if one thing’s for sure, it’s that our communities can’t wait for empty promises that can’t be kept.

To Senator and Congressman Sanders’ credit, while he was wrong about immigration issues, he was never dishonest. You knew where he stood. But candidate Sanders? The lesson of his campaign has been that you can’t be sure where he stands or what he’ll do at all.

read: https://medium.com/@DoloresHuerta/on-immigration-bernie-sanders-is-not-who-he-says-he-is-b79980adff6a#.2g71zh4rk …

LAREDO - Hillary Clinton's ties with the Latino community date back 35 years ago, while Barack Obama's date back six months ago, said Dolores Huerta and Laredo's political and community leaders at a meet and greet breakfast Sunday.

“She's not the 'Johnny Come Lately',” said Huerta (75), co-founder of the United Farm Workers union with César Chávez.

“When she was in her 20s, she was registering voters down in the Valley, right in the poorest parts of the United States of America for Latinos to live. Hillary was knocking on doors to register Latinos to vote.”

read: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4679349

Hillary Clinton tested in Texas, where it all began in '72


Dolores Huerta signing up farm workers

AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) -- Garry Mauro will never forget that night in 1972 when he says Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham (then unmarried) ignored the post-election party surrounding them, instead preferring to huddle in a corner and talk about changing the future...

Mauro and the Clintons cut their political teeth in Texas during the 1972 election, knocking on doors and registering people -- many of them minorities -- to vote.

Texas election workers often looked with suspicion at the so-called "out-of-staters." "Most of them had a funny accent and really didn't know how to talk to people," Mauro said. "That was not the case with Hillary Clinton. She always established a rapport with the local officials she was working with -- even the ones that started out being aggressively negative. And she would always seem to move the ball forward."

In general, said Mauro, a national election campaign is grueling. "Most people only have a few good elections in them," said Mauro. "It's really hard work. It's grunt work." For that reason, he said, "That's a pretty remarkable person to keep that enthusiasm and drive and continue to have that grit 30 years later."

read: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/29/texas.clinton.memories/#cnnSTCText

Hillary Clinton Has Deep History With Latinos


Hillary Clinton and United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez during a rally in Salinas, California, on Jan. 22, 2008

In 1972, when a young Hillary and Bill Clinton were working the ill-fated George McGovern campaign, she worked closely with well-respected union leader, Franklin Garcia, who took her under his wing as she helped register Latino voters in south Texas and along the Rio Grande Valley.

“Hispanics in South Texas were,” she wrote in her 2003 memoir Living History, “understandably, wary of a blond girl from Chicago who didn’t speak a word of Spanish.” But Garcia “took me places I could never have gone alone and vouched for me to Mexican Americans who worried I might be from the immigration service or some other government agency.” Garcia drove her and Bill across the border to Matamoros, a dive that had only a “decent mariachi band,” she wrote, but where she indulged in barbecued cabrito, or goat.

Garry Mauro, one of her first contacts in Texas, told the San Antonio Express in 2008 that back then she had a “cultural affinity with Hispanics,” asking questions and listening to their concerns, a dynamic that would be on display again, more than three decades later in Nevada, as she tried to woo an influential Latino activist.

“The way my dad explained it, she was somebody you could talk to,” Escobedo Jr. said. “She spoke from the heart and asked about what the Hispanic community was going through and what had to be done. My dad was taken aback by Hillary, by how she was able to communicate and listen and how she wanted to help Hispanics.”

read: http://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarrasquillo/hillary-clinton-has-deep-history-with-latinos-and-theres-not#.akqGnvY4Y

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1. kick

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Bernie opposed Ted Kennedy's immigration reform bill.

The majority of Republicans in the House opposed it.

The vast majority of Latinos supported the immigration reform bill.

Bernie was definitely on the wrong side of history.

The fact that he and his supporters can't admit that is pretty sad.

[Dems2002]

7. I can

I don't believe Senator Sanders is perfect. I think he has empathy and compassion for all, but I think he puts the interests of his people above others. And for him, he's viewed his people as his constituents and "Americans" coming first. And one of his errors in judgement is worrying about immigrants, particularly those who are undocumented, taking jobs in America and depressing wages.

He has flaws. But I hope that his change is due to his recognition that to be President his constituent base has expanded. And ideally he's been educated about his former errors of judgement and so his change on this topic is a sincere one. I tend to believe it to be because I struggle to imagine him being told by anyone to say something he doesn't believe, even if his opinion on the issue hurts him.

[Cali_Democrat]

15. WOW

I'm impressed.

Kudos.

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17. YOU SAY: 'one of his errors in judgement is worrying about immigrants'

...full stop.

This is the type of thinking which defines the republican party. It doesn't belong in ANY Democratic expression or doctrine.

[Dems2002]

24. I understand and respect your opinion

No politician is perfect. I will take someone who is honest and flawed over someone who knows all the right things to say, but then turns around and screws people over with bad economic policy.

I've been volunteering in rural Nevada this past week for Sanders. Do you know what the biggest local issue that has come up? Suicide. Everyone here personally knows someone who has committed suicide. It's an epidemic. And in my opinion, it's an epidemic because of economic insecurity, lack of any viable options to change this circumstance, and the ingrained American belief that it's all our fault when we don't succeed.

Do some of these people end up blaming others as well as themselves? Of course. This is how they divide us and conquer. I don't believe we can alleviate racism without improving economic circumstances for everyone. And the current economic model employed by DLC Democrats doesn't do this.

I know there are people who are Team Bernie and Feeling the Bern who think he's the second coming. He isn't. I agree with him on the vast majority of issues. I think he wears blinders and doesn't see the big picture on others. He has been ahead of his time on a lot of social issues. He's still a 74-year-old white male.

But the thing is, the "revolution" isn't about one person. It's to get money out of politics and get the system working again for all of us and not just the monied interests. Bernie sure as hell can't do it alone. My goal isn't just electing Bernie. My goal is electing the young people he is inspiring. My goal is electing Black Lives Matter activists. My goal is getting Dreamers a path to citizenship and then electing them.

In addition to working for Bernie I also work for an organization that helps connect Latin@s to jobs in tech. I want activists to hold his feet to the fire just like he protested and held the feet of the establishment to the fire in Chicago. That's what a vibrant Democracy is all about. That's what he wants. Will he be a cranky old man when he's its victim? Quite possibly. But he will have taught these activists what is possible. And I believe that they will succeed

[workinclasszero]

18. Not good enough Bernie

Not even close.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

3. I firmly believe that Senator Sanders is exactly who he says he is. I also know that millions agree

with me. I think most people can instinctively see that Sanders is a good person, and that some of these attacks just don't pass the smell test. He's lived an entire life that counters accusations like this, and people know this.

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4. she says he's a 'good person'

...on the wrong side of history on these issues Ms. Huerta raised in her essay.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

6. As is her right. I disagree. nt

[mcar]

5. K&R

[book_worm]

8. Solid OP, Thanks for posting

[msanthrope]

9. Kick. nt

[JI7]

10. his position has improved for the better

That's a good thing

[Armstead]

11. She slammed Obama too...I guess anyone running against Clinton is not good enough

From that DU luink in 2008

Hillary Clinton's ties with the Latino community date back 35 years ago, while Barack Obama's date back six months ago, said Dolores Huerta and Laredo's political and community leaders at a meet and greet breakfast Sunday.

“She's not the 'Johnny Come Lately',” said Huerta (75), co-founder of the United Farm Workers union with César Chávez....

Huerta also made reference to the Obama's campaign's use of the slogan Sí Se Puede - yes, it is possible. She told the audience the phrase originated in 1972 in Arizona, a state where farm workers first thought it was impossible to organize....

“Now they're copying our slogan, but you cannot build a relationship nomas con una palabra - just with one word,” said Huerta, referring to Obama's campaign's usage of the phrase.

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19. she says Hillary's more qualified and has been committed to the community longer

...if the truth is a slam, so be it.

[Armstead]

20. Jus' sayin' ......She made same dismissive comments about Obama

Instead of simply talking about how wonderful Clinton is...

[Thinkingabout]

31. Sanders has made dismissive comments about Hillary as she has also made

Dismissive comments about Sanders in 2016. Since she withdrew from the 2008 campaign, she campaigned for Obama, nominated him on the floor of the convention in 2008. She did not seek to have him primaried in 2012 nor did she say she thought she would be the one to primary him.

[angrychair]

12. With all due respect

To Ms. Huerta, I know she is advocating for her chosen candidate but intellectual honesty is still important.
The 2007 immigration Bill has been answered, repeatedly, as well as the fact that many Latino organizations opposed it as did noted Latino leaders in the community. His disagreement was thoughtful and with the best interest of guest workers.
It also omits that Bernie Sanders did vote to approve the 2013 Immigration Reform Bill, that no longer had the slave-like guest worker provisions.

The Harry Reid letter above, in which she is critical of Sanders for not signing, is not signed by a lot of Democratic senators, including Bob Menendez, a Democrat and the only member of the Senate that is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. That being said, the 112th Congress had 51 Democrats and two independents that caucuses with the Democrats (one being Sanders, Sanders was not a Democrat at the time). That letter has 12 signatures, by my math there were 41 sitting members of the Senate Democratic Caucus that did not sign that letter. There is no evidence that Sanders was even asked to sign it and declined. The senior Senator from Vermont, Patrick Leahy, signed it as chair of the Judiciary Committee so why the junior member from Vermont would have signed it is beyond me.

These points matter. Its fine to have disagreements but deal with them honestly.

[Qutzupalotl]

13. +1

[Arazi]

14. Thank you. Sanders has a real problem with POC

and he is weak on immigration reform but there's more to the story here

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16. that's not much of a defense

...to point to some Latino group that opposed the 2007 bill. If you
opposed to the bill, fine, say that. But it's not untruthful to take an opposite position.

Neither is it untruthful to ask where Bernie Sanders was on the issue of DREAMERS when this letter was being sent. Why should anyone have to go find him to get him on board? He either was, or he wasn't.

[angrychair]

22. What??

Sanders opposition to the 2007 is clear and in no way due to him not caring about immigration reform. I suggest you reference the transcript from the Nevada Town Hall last night as this issue was given a detailed (and fact checked) answer.

Again, as I stared, the only sitting Senator that was a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus did not sign it. 40 others did not sign it.
Second, there is a very specific protocol in regards to things like this. Those that signed were likely chosen for a very specific reason, it was not random nor was it open to everyone, as I would suspect there would have been more than 12. Your criticism of Sanders cast a much wider net than you realize. That same criticism could be applied to anyone that didn't sign. The senior Senator from Vermont already signed the letter, as Chair of the Senate Judiciary committee. Vermont was already represented by its senior Senator.
Do you know, for a fact, during this timeframe, before or after, that Sanders did not speak publicly in support of Dreamers?

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23. that's a weak defense of the vote and she has the right t wonder where he was

...when others were fighting for the DREAMERS.

Sanders supporters don't give Clinton an inch on her votes and shouldn't expect any understanding for Sanders' own.

[Tanuki]

27. When you mention that Bob Menendez did not sign it and point out that he is a member of

the Hispanic Caucus, you should keep in mind that his heritage is Cuban-American, a demographic that tends to be very different politically from those with roots in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and others come to mind...

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21. kick

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25. »

[cantbeserious]

26. Predictably Spreading Establishment FUD - Meme Number 143

eom

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29. when you make people like this woman an enemy of your sad 'revolution

...you lose any credibility you ever had.

[cantbeserious]

30. When Campaigns Spread FUD - This Speaks Volumes About Desperation

eom

[riversedge]

28. K and R--and thanks

[Thinkingabout]

32. K & R

[Vattel]

33. Her statment is so obviously unfair that it should be ignored.

He has explained his reasons for voting against the 2007 immigration reform bill. BECAUSE OF BAD GUEST WORKER PROVISIONS. He voted for the later immigration reform bill that didn't have those provisions. She should be at least somewhat sympathetic to that since the United Farm Workers were against similar guest worker programs in California.

And the letter not signed by Sanders? Seriously? Obviously it is unfair to criticize someone for not signing a letter when such letters are commonly sent without soliciting every Senator's signature. The letter was signed by Lieberman and Nelson. Why? Presumably because their names would be especially significant because they were among the more conservative members of the Democratic caucus. Nelson filibustered the Dream Act for pity's sake. Memendez isn't signatory, Schumer isn't a signatory. Did they suddenly stop liking the Dream Act?

This is the sort of bullshit one expects in a primary. Why you promote it is beyond me.

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35. I respect Dolores Huerta's word more than ANY politician

...and the bottom line is, Vattel, there isn't an explanation for voting against that bill that will suffice for me. I believe Dolores Huerta feels the same; likewise for the millions whose lives and livelihoods depended on that bill's passage.

Why do I 'promote' an article by this accomplished woman? If you have to ask, Vattel, what's the point in my answering you?

All of this outrage in defense of a politician...why, indeed?

[Vattel]

36. Dolores Huerta did many wonderful things and deserves great respect and admiration for it.

That doesn't mean that we should turn a blind eye when it is patently obvious that she is being unfair.

[Starry Messenger]

34. Kick

[riversedge]

37. ok