Sanders Can’t Escape Questions About 2007 Vote on Immigration Overhaul

[RandySF]

But Mr. Sanders could face continuing questions about his vote against a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill in 2007, as he did during the first Democratic presidential debate last week. And while he has recently presented that vote in humanitarian terms, his language at the time was starkly economic about guest-worker visas, which were viewed skeptically by organized labor.

“Why should Latino voters trust you now when you left them at the altar at the moment when reform was very close?” Juan Carlos López, a panelist and an anchor on CNN en Español asked in the debate last week about the senator’s vote against that bill.

“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.”

But Mr. Sanders was part of an effort by liberal Democrats to kill the bill that year. His language at the time often related not to the concerns of the workers receiving the visas, but to the bill’s impact on American wage-earners. And those words are at odds with how much of the Democratic Party currently discusses immigration overhaul, all but guaranteeing he will continue to be asked to clarify his views.


http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/10/19/bernie-sanders-cant-escape-questions-about-2007-vote-on-immigration-overhaul/?_r=0

[Eric J in MN]

1. Exploitation and unfair competition go together.

A bill which would cause guest workers to be exploited would make it unfair for American workers to compete with them.

[hedda_foil]

2. I'd really love to see the Clinton polling internals right about now.

They're pumping out (leaking) every bit of opposition research they've been able to muster, as fast as the MSM can handle it. If their stats are as stellar as portrayed, it seems strange that they're working so hard at trying to take Bernie down.

[redstateblues]

3. I'm sure the internals show Bernie surging

and way ahead of Hillary. I think Bernie's votes in Congress are a matter of public record.

[AgingAmerican]

4. The bill that sought to build a border fence and militarize the border?

It basically sought to make a Berlin wall on our southern border, and was heavily lobbied for by none other than GW BUSH? That bill?

You need to do your homework.

[SunSeeker]

7. How about his vote for a 2006 amendment legitimizing Minuteman Militiasalong the Mexican border?

You need to do your homework.

And his explanation in 2007 for his vote against the immigration bill was not how he explains it now. At the time, he talked about not wanting immigrants taking American jobs. I recall seeing a video of him claiming immigrants were coming in and taking all kinds of jobs, even jobs as "lifeguards."

[AgingAmerican]

8. You guys have so little to attack him with...

That you must pour over everything he has ever done or said, looking for sentences or single words that can be misconstrued, or votes that can be spun. That's gotta suck.

[SunSeeker]

10. His vote against the immigration bill is not "so little."

Hillary has the Latino vote for a reason. And you need the Latino vote to win.

[daleanime]

5. Maybe Hillary can give him some advice.......

on the Art of Ducking Questions?

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. I remember a lot of opposition to that bill right here at DU.

[HerbChestnut]

9. This is the bill that would have created an exploited workforce, correct?

[Live and Learn]

11. Bernie was right then and he is right now!

Guest workers are based upon the lie that American's won't or can't do the jobs. The truth is, Americans will and can do any job as long as it pays a wage they can live on. I can't believe anyone falls for the lie. Americans have always been hard and able workers.

But those that have already come in to the country because employers are willing to hire them cheaper (whether legal or not) are not the ones that should be punished. If you want to stop it, stop guest workers and punish the employers heavily for hiring undocumented workers. Let employers train employees if needed. P.S., Bernie's plan for free college education should help with this too. Let us lead the way and show other countries how to improve themselves instead of bending to their level.

[JDPriestly]

12. RandySF. The problem is that undocumented workers are not paid the wages

that an American worker would have to be paid by law.

Undocumented workers cannot enforce laws that protect workers, not wage laws, not Worker's Compensation, etc.

And Bernie is right and I agree with him, provisions for H1-B visas and temporary visas create an underclass of immigrant workers who do not have the rights that other workers have.

The detriment that they do to our labor market cuts both ways. Not only do they suffer because they do not have full rights that other American labor would have, but they compete with American labor and lower our wage and benefit scale.

Bernie is right. Immigrants should be given equal rights with Americans when it comes to the workplace.

Bernie often speaks of ways that the very powerful and wealthy try to divide ordinary people. Race, gender, religion are three ways. Immigration status is yet another way to divide people, to weaken their ability to join together and demand and bargain for their rights.

Bernie rightfully opposed an immigration bill that created classes of immigrants, some with more rights than others. In the workplace, all workers should have equal rights.

It is necessary to understand what Bernie was talking about. I grant you it is not as easy to understand as some things.

[stonecutter357]

13. K&R!

[aikoaiko]

14. He doesn't need to escape because he answered the question effectively.

[pinebox]

15. We can play dirty with this

Because this sure as hell isn't going to help Hillary and this wasn't 2007 either but rather last year in June 2014.
If Hillary wants to play with fire, her ass is going to get burned.

Hillary Clinton: Unaccompanied Minors 'Should Be Sent Back'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/18/hillary-clinton-immigration_n_5507630.html

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that unaccompanied minors who crossed the border illegally in a massive influx over recent months "should be sent back" to their native countries, but also that they should be reunited with their families -- which sometimes requires them to stay in the United States.

"They should be sent back as soon as it can be determined who responsible adults in their families are, because there are concerns about whether all of them should be sent back," the potential 2016 presidential candidate said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "But I think all of them who can be should be reunited with their families."

Clinton's answer mirrored the Obama administration's tough position on how to deal with unaccompanied minors, who are entering the country through the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas at rates some have called a "humanitarian crisis." Those minors are put into deportation proceedings by the Department of Homeland Security, but then are transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services. That department looks for family members in the United States who can care for the children, although that does not mean they won't be deported later.

[NCTraveler]

16. I truly think the vote should have been a no brainier.

I feel Sanders reasons fell way short in his reasons for opposition. I would start a damn fund myself for the fence and border security if it meant a pathway to citizenship for over ten million people. These people would be citizens instead of slaves today. Really fucked up in my opinion. After Sanders sided with republicans to defeat this bill, did they then show Sanders respect and stop fighting successfully for additional visas. So you saved us from a couple hundred mile fence and extra border patrols, but blocked a pathway to citizenship for over ten million people and the repubs slowly got the visas they wanted.

The fence would have created jobs. Additional border patrol would open up new jobs. People are currently dying being brought across the borders by smugglers. People living within the law in this country are in fear of being deported. People are dying walking across the border. Families are being destroyed. Getting control of the border isn't some fucking right wing thing, it's a humanitarian issue. We need to wake up.