Politifact: In 2007, Sanders joined with conservative Republicans in opposing immigration reform

[Cali_Democrat]

<...>

However, he wasn’t always on that side of the issue.In 2007, when George W. Bush was president, Sanders joined with some conservative Republicans in opposing a comprehensive immigration bill. The bipartisan bill, sponsored by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., went down in defeat.

<...>

Clinton, by contrast, voted for the immigration bill, as did then-Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/sep/22/fact-checking-viral-graphic-critical-bernie-sander/

[mwrguy]

1. There seems to be a trend

[RandySF]

3. Yes, the truth.

[bravenak]

2. I find this par for the course.

[azurnoir]

4. typical use of slight of hand here or you think all immigrants are undocumented?

tell us does that apply only to immigrants from Latin America or is it more universal?

Sanders’ presidential campaign website says he would "sign comprehensive immigration reform into law to bring over 11 million undocumented workers out of the shadows."

However, he wasn’t always on that side of the issue. In 2007, when George W. Bush was president, Sanders joined with some conservative Republicans in opposing a comprehensive immigration bill. The bipartisan bill, sponsored by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., went down in defeat.

[SunSeeker]

5. Yup, and Sanders is dishonest in his current explanation of his vote.

He now claims he voted against it because the bill would result in "slave labor" or some such nonsense. But at the time he voted against it, he said it was to preserve American jobs from illegal immigrants taking them. In one video I saw of him making those comments, Sanders carried on about how illegal immigrants were even taking lifeguard jobs. LOL. County lifeguard jobs in Southern California are not easy to get, and virtually impossible if you are undocumented. It was a bullshit anti-immigrant scare line by Sanders. I wish I could find a link to the video. I saw on MSNBC, either the Rachel or Lawrence O'Donnell show a few weeks ago.

[Cha]

8. Not the first BS comment I've heard from him on why he voted the way he did.

He still sees it that way..

Why Immigration Is The Hole In Bernie Sanders’ Progressive Agenda

snip//

Sanders’ position on immigration has been called “complicated” and he has been criticized by immigration activists for supporting the idea that immigrants coming to the U.S. are taking jobs and hurting the economy, a theory that has been proven incorrect. Both of his leading Democratic challengers, Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley, have recognized that new immigrants coming to the country actually boost the economy. But Sanders continues to align himself more closely with Democratic positions of the past.

snip//


Studies have shown that immigrants actually create jobs for American workers. Researchers recently found that each new immigrant has produced about 1.2 new jobs in the U.S., most of which have gone to native-born workers. And according to the Atlantic, an influx in immigration can cause non-tradable professions — jobs like hospitality and construction that cannot be outsourced — to see a wage increase because the demand for goods and services grows with the expanding population.

But Sanders fails to see it that way, pointing on Thursday to the 36 percent unemployment rate for Hispanic young people. “You bring a lot of unskilled workers into this country, what do you think happens to that 36 percent?”

MOre..
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/07/30/3686282/bernie-sanders-immigration/

[sahel]

17. it hurts unskilled workers

While immigration boosts the incomes of professional, paraprofessional and skilled workers it depresses the incomes of unskilled workers, particularly those without a high school diploma.

[RandySF]

6. Maybe when he champions the poor and working class

he champions a select poor and working class.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Oh sure,...because his audience is too white.

[sahel]

16. Given that black wages were depressed by immigration

more than anyone else's, probably not.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1562148

"The employment rate of black men, and particularly of low-skilled black men, fell precipitously between 1960 and 2000. At the same time, their incarceration rate rose. This paper examines the relation between immigration and these trends in employment and incarceration. Using data from the 1960–2000 US censuses, we find that a 10% immigration-induced increase in the supply of workers in a particular skill group reduced the black wage of that group by 2.5%, lowered the employment rate by 5.9 percentage points, and increased the incarceration rate by 1.3 percentage points."

[SoapBox]

7. Yawn...

Same article as the NUCLEAR waste scare.

It's been done.

And the chart was provided by a Clinton supporter (as assumed by Politifact)...but why didn't they fact check her?

Are you going to cover all 12 points and how they divided them up from mostly true to inaccurate?

[silvershadow]

9. I pay no attention to individual votes on things in the past, because

I am not in that moment...I have no context. I have no idea what he may have been thinking on it. If he happens to address it I will pay attention, but this does diddly squat to change my mind about him in any way.

[murielm99]

11. I will remember this post the next time

a Sanders supporter criticizes one of Hillary's past votes.

[Live and Learn]

10. Hillary voted for the Iraq war! nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. This was the bill that legalized an exploited underclass....

It was opposed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

BTW: Obama opposed it too.

[sahel]

14. it was opposed by the AFL-CIO as well

At the time, Sanders worried that an influx of legal immigrants would lower wages for workers. "Sanders was basically one of our only allies … especially for low-skilled workers" in 2007, Ana Avendano, a former top immigration official at the AFL-CIO, told Politico earlier this year. "He adamantly put his foot down and said these kinds of programs (allow) employers to bring in more and more vulnerable workers."

And from Obama:

"Applause, because undocumented immigrants live in the shadows, where they’re vulnerable to unscrupulous businesses that skirt taxes, and pay workers less than the minimum wage, or cut corners with health and safety laws, this puts companies who follow the rules, and Americans who rightly demand the minimum wage or overtime or just a safe place to work, it puts those businesses at a disadvantage.

Think about it. Over the past decade, even before the recession hit, middle-class families were struggling to get by as the costs went up for everything, from health care, to college tuition, to groceries, to gas. Their incomes didn’t go up with those prices. We’re seeing it again right now with gas prices.

So one way to strengthen the middle class in America is to reform the immigration system so that there is no longer a massive underground economy that exploits a cheap source of labor while depressing wages for everybody else. I want incomes for middle-class families to rise again. (Applause.) I want prosperity in this country to be widely shared. (Applause.) I want everybody to be able to reach that American dream. And that’s why immigration reform is an economic imperative. It’s an economic imperative. (Applause.)"

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. But it was good for business!!! That's all that matters!!!

[NCTraveler]

18. I have discussed this vote.

I have yet to have heard resins as to why ten plus million people need to continue living in the shadows. We were so close to actually looking like we gave a shit about human rights. We had some good people fighting for progress. Obama, Clinton, Kennedy, Biden, Boxer..... Sanders didn't even think it was worth an up or down vote. That is a fact. He didn't even want a vote on it.

[Cha]

19. I love it when you make the bernies "yawn". You know it's good.