Bernie Sanders: US would never recover from 'stain' of deporting 'dreamers'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 01/21/18 09:56 AM EST

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday that the United States would never recover from the “stain” of deporting young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children who are often called "dreamers."

During a Sunday show interview, Sanders said their deportations would be “one of the ugliest stains” in American history. “If we allow Trump to get away with what he did and that is repeal the executive order on DACA, and if these 800,000 people, young people, are subjected to deportation, this will be one of the ugliest stains in the history of the United States,” Sanders told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The Vermont lawmaker’s remarks come as the Democratic Party, which Sanders caucuses with, pushes for a legislative fix to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. President Trump said last year he would rescind the program, which shielded immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children from deportation, but provided Congress with a window of time to craft a legislative fix for them.

That legislation was part of talks to fund the government. The Senate failed to reach a deal over a short-term funding bill by a midnight deadline on Saturday, leading to the government shutdown.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/369983-bernie-sanders-us-will-never-recover-from-stain-of-deporting-dreamers

[dlk]

1. It Would Be Added to the American Stain of Slavery and Genocide

[kimbutgar]

2. And dont forget the internment of the Japanese during WW 2

Add that in as another disgraceful act on Americans. These DACA kids are undocumented Americans. This is their country also.

[TomCADem]

3. What Bernie Sanders told Lou Dobbs in 2007 about why he opposed the Kennedy-McCain immigration bill

It is too bad that Bernie Sanders helped kill immigration reform back in 2007 as he explained to fellow anti-immigration populist Lou Dobbs: "I don't know why we need millions of people to be coming into this country as guest workers who will work for lower wages than American workers and drive wages down even lower than they are now."

Likewise, Attorney General Jeff Sessions justified ending DACA: “(The DACA program) denied jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans by allowing those same jobs to go to illegal aliens.”

I would love to hear Bernie try to reconcile his former position as a Lou Dobbs agreeing anti-immigrant populist with his current view opposing the Trump administration ending DACA.

https://www.vox.com/2016/2/12/10981234/bernie-sanders-lou-dobbs

It's interesting to compare this with what he said about the bill at the time on Lou Dobbs's show. Dobbs, for those who've forgotten, was a business news broadcaster who refashioned himself as a somewhat Trump-esque anti-immigration, anti–trade deal populist in the mid-aughts.

If you watch the interview you'll see that Sanders isn't particularly interested in working conditions for guest workers and he's also not narrowly focused on the H2 programs the SPLC report was about — he also talks about H1 programs for skilled workers that, whatever their flaws, are clearly not slavery.

Dobbs is opposed to the whole idea of "amnesty," which Sanders was not, but Sanders also doesn't argue with Dobbs about it. Sanders doesn't really say anything about the costs and benefits to immigrants themselves — whether that's people who've been living illegally in the United States or potential future guest workers — one way or another. His focus is on the idea that "what happens in Congress is to a very significant degree dictated by big-money interests" and that "I don't know why we need millions of people to be coming into this country as guest workers who will work for lower wages than American workers and drive wages down even lower than they are now."

[lunamagica]

4. Thank you. Thi is is the first thing that I thought when I read the OP.

Had that immigration bill passed, it's unlikely we would be in this mess.

Sorry, Sanders, I'm not buying your PR moves towards a nomination in 2020. History speaks for itself.

[JCanete]

6. I don't see how they are the same thing, so reconciling isn't that hard. If you want to say

that sanders has a complicated stance on immigration, that's fair, but dreamer protection is not a guest worker program, which lets be honest, does NOT at all afford the same protections to those workers that would allow them any leverage what-so-ever. They are under the thumb of the corporations they work for lest they have their worker status revoked, so yes, that kind of arrangement, does depress wages. The guest worker program seems to be the crux here...companies petitioning to bring in lower wage employees when they should simply be paying higher wages.

[TomCADem]

8. So, Are You Saying Bernie Is Trying to Triangulate...

...or has he simply updated his position?

I would have more respect for him if he simply admitted that his efforts to cater to white resentment in the past by taking an even more anti-immigration position than McCain was wrong, because it was. For goodness sakes, he appeared on a Lou Dobbs segment focused on attacking amnesty to immigrants in which he largely agreed with Lou Dobbs. If he says his views have evolved, then that is fine, and he should say so clearly.

However, given Bernie's past positions, I am afraid that he is trying to stay ambiguous so that he can try to make a pitch for Trump voters. He has attacked "identity politics," even though it is Trump that has been playing to white resentment. If he does not repudiate his prior positions on immigrants, I can see Bernie easily pivoting back to his original anti-immigrant rhetoric where he sells hate against immigrants as populist concern for American workers.

You do not have to be racist or xenophobic to care for American workers. We have seen with Trump where the scapegoating of immigrants leads. The United Farmworkers was made of immigrants and was very progressive both in labor issues as well as empowering people of color.

[JCanete]

9. I don't have a problem with his previous position, and again they aren't the same, so no,

I'm not saying he's trying to triangualte, but sure, everybody plays politics to some degree, and its unavoidable. The question is always what does a person sacrifice, and in this case, the only real questionable thing about Sanders stance is that he used Dobb's racist platform to deliver it. Yes, under those circumstances, he might have better articulated their differences. Again though, guest worker programs tend to be shitty in their implementation and the design is hardly to protect those workers from exploitation. Whereaas amnesty does. As to selling hate, that's not what is happening out of Bernie's mouth, but I'd be interested in seeing if you have any other examples you can cite.

[Cha]

7. Mahalo for that, Tom.. it's the first thing

I thought of, too.

[R B Garr]

10. Wow, nailed it. This and your other answer post 100%.

Thank you.

[LanternWaste]

14. The one does not deny the other...

The one does not deny the other...

But I get it... opportunities to throw shade with an alleged sincerity are far a few between-- we gotta take 'em when they're available, even if it takes a logical fallacy or two for the delivery mechanism.

Clever attempt.

[QC]

15. Hey, that primary ain't gonna rehash itself! n/t

[TomCADem]

16. Bernie Was Not in 2008 Democratic Primaries

The 2007 Immigration Reform Bill long predated his bid for the Presidency. Yet, folks try to kill any discussion of how Sanders use to be on the anti-amnesty band wagon, and his comments scapegoating immigrants for the suffering of American workers is self-explanatory.

I’f trust him more if he clearly repudiated his prior anti-immigrant rhetoric. Instead, you see folks agreeing with him and Lou Dobbs even now.

[briv1016]

5. We've forgiven ourselves for Slavery, Trail of Tears, Jim Crow, Japanese Internment, Sodomy Laws

and a bunch of other shit all pretty easily. I don't think we'll have a hard time getting past deporting "Illegals."

[Demsrule86]

12. I wasn't around for any of that...I did of course fight for Gay rights. This is our time and,

it is our duty to fight for what is right. Some in Congress and the courts tried to stop the Native American massacres and the trail of tears...Andrew Jackson defied both. We need to block this with out bodies if need be.

[Bradical79]

13. I don't think we've recovered from those either -nt

[Demsrule86]

11. I agree with Sen.Sanders. I don't know if we can stop it in Congress...but if need be we should

be out in the streets...and have a system to hide dreamers until we get the monster in chief out.