TIME: Why Conservatives Praise Bernie Sanders on Immigration

[TomCADem]

Bernie's record on immigration needs to be vetted as this TIME's magazine article makes clear:

https://time.com/4170591/bernie-sanders-immigration-conservatives/

Roy Beck, the president of NumbersUSA, a group that seeks to dramatically reduce legal and illegal immigration to the United States, said this week that after studying Sanders’ record and rhetoric, he sees some common ground. “I think in his gut he believes his obligation as president would be to the workers of America, not to the workers of the world,” Beck said in an interview.

Rep. Steve King of Iowa, the adamantly pro-life co-chair of Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign who has dismissed global warming as a hoax and repeatedly supported shutting down the federal government, praised Sanders’ immigration stance several times in August.

“I admire Bernie’s passion and I notice that his immigration position is closer to mine than it is some of the presidential candidates on the Republican side,” King said in an interview with an Iowa radio station over this past summer. “He’s said ‘Let’s take care of American workers.’ I’m all for that.”

Also this summer, King compared Sanders with Republican candidate Donald Trump, saying they’re “both speaking with non-politically correct language, and Bernie has taken some positions that I agree with. And part of his immigration policy is something that I agree with.”

[KPN]

1. Let's take care of American workers is a good idea instead of trade agreements that in the past

have resulted in jobs being moved out of the United States in order to reduce production costs via ultra-low cost labor without concern for impacts to the domestic workforce; instead of gutting unions in order to reduce wages to levels that no longer sustained existing worker lifestyles. I agree with Bernie.

Do you not TomCADem? Do you not support American workers? Do you not think we can have an immigration policy that treats refugees humanely and compassionately as well as American workers? The two are not mutually exclusive.

[TomCADem]

5. HuffPo: Immigration Activists Accuse Bernie Sanders Of Using GOP Talking Points

Donald Trump and many Trump supporters passionately believe as you and Bernie Sanders do that immigrants are the cause of problems caused many American workers. I, on the other hand, think that America's history was built by immigrants.

As the article below notes, I think Bernie repeatedly adopts GOP talking points attacking Democrats when he talks about immigration. For example, open borders. For example, no Democratic candidate is pushing "open borders," yet Bernie continues to attack this strawman.

Thus, I see Bernie validating Republican arguments scapegoating immigrants for the ills faced by American workers. By using GOP talking points, Bernie validates them. Ultimately, this scapegoating and the underlying racism, is not only harmful to immigrants and minorities, but it serves as a distraction and means to oppress working class whites:



https://www.huffpost.com/entry/immigration-bernie-sanders-gop-talking-points_n_55bbf39be4b06363d5a2572a

WASHINGTON — When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said this week that he opposes open borders — more a hypothetical than an actual policy proposal — no one was shocked. The Democratic presidential candidate supported comprehensive immigration reform in 2013 and favors a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, but he’s long been skeptical of guest worker programs and other legal immigration that could squeeze out American workers.

Some immigration advocates, however, said they were surprised Sanders quickly went from talking about open borders to saying he doesn’t want immigrants to take American jobs.

Sanders has insisted he was speaking about open borders, something no candidate is pushing, but also repeated his concern that businesses want to bring foreign workers to the U.S. to take American jobs.

“Those are the talking points that Republicans use to drive a wedge between Latinos and the African-American vote, saying, ‘They’re coming to take your jobs.’ That at its core does not resonate and does not set him apart from the Republican Party,” said Greisa Martinez, advocacy coordinator for United We Dream, a group led by undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

[KPN]

7. That article just proved my point. Bernie describes what he means

and then the boo bears attack him for something he didn’t say or mean. The reasoning in that article is about as sound as the WH Counsel’s in the impeachment trial today.

None of this has anything to do with Sander’s views. It’s personal ... based in being butt hurt because we lost in 2016 (and wanting someone to blame other than themselves) and Sander’s lack of fealty to the Democratic establishment. It’s petty small mindedness in my view.

[Cha]

2. Nice rec.. "I admire Bernie's passion and I notice that his immigration position is closer to mine..

than it is some of the presidential candidates on the Republican side,” steve king..

[Thekaspervote]

3. Sanders voted no in 2007 to immigration reform

BernieSanders once appeared on Lou Dobbs show after voting against Ted Kennedy's immigration bill. Sanders agreed with Dobbs that immigrants stole American jobs and drove down wages.

Of note, @JoeBiden voted FOR the immigration bill.

[NCProgressive]

4. Diversity is anathema to the BS campaign

It is based upon an erroneous supposition that immigrants take jobs away from "hard working Americans" or "Working class Americans" both code phrases for a certain group and of course republicans like that.

[DanTex]

6. Umm. That's from 2016. So the "vetting" has already occurred.

And across the board, Dem voters prefer Bernies policies to the more centrist candidates. The only question some voters have is on electability.

But that’s fading too now that it’s becoming clear that Bernie can draw support from different constituencies not just the base.

But good luck trying to argue that Bernie’s dedication to American workers is a bad thing.

[TomCADem]

8. Bernie's Embrace of Right Wing America First Talking Points Hurts American Workers

If you were to compare the list of talking points promoting Trump's "America First" type policies on immigration with Bernie's history of statements on immigration, they sound similar. There is no difference.

I am sure Trump and a lot of other Republicans try to spin their efforts to scapegoat immigrants as dedication to American workers, which they will claim, like you, is not a bad thing.

The problem is that such efforts to scapegoat immigrants ultimately hurts American workers in multiple ways. First, it is divisive and can be used to split coalitions of working class whites and immigrant communities who have much in common economically. This rhetoric is also used to divide the African American and latino communities.

Second, how can you be pro-social security, but anti-immigration? Many demographic studies have found that because immigrants tend to be younger and have higher fertility rates than the general population, immigration mitigates the aging of the population. In other words, young immigrant workers help, not hurt, older American workers by helping to fund social security. It is simple math.

Third, your arguments if true mean that Bernie will get destroyed by Trump. If Bernie argues (like Trump) that restricting immigration helps american workers, that opens the door to Trump saying that Bernie is not in it to win it, because he is all concerned about trying to be "humane" to immigrants who are stealing American jobs according to Bernie's own reasoning.

Thus, by adopting Trump like talking points on immigration, Bernie is ultimately harming America's workers.