Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Meanwhile, Among the Democrats …

Tom Meyer, Common Citizen
By Tom Meyer, Common Citizen
Tom Meyer, Common Citizen Contributor
Conservative libertarian, former Ricochet East Coast/Morning Editor. I post on Twitter @tomdmeyer
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6 COMMENTS
 

I missed last night’s debate, but the highlight reel below sent me looking for the transcript. With the country in the mood it’s in — and with Sanders and Clinton squabbling over who can increase the welfare state the most — were they really trying to out-immigration-dove each other last night? Yes, Tom. Of course they were.

Take just the following exchange. To set it up, Sanders was getting hit on his opposition to the 2007 Immigration Reform Act. He defended his vote on the grounds that it would have allowed conditions “akin to slavery” and that the bill was opposed by other liberal stalwarts, including Ted Kennedy. Smelling blood, Clinton pushed:

CLINTON: […] And I will go back to what I said. If we had been able to get [the 2007 bill] passed, we would be so much further along now. I’m committed to defending [the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents]. I’m committed to going even further to get more people deferred action, to go as far as I can under the law. And I am committed to introducing comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship in the first 100 days of my presidency.

Don’t say she’s unclear on the matter. And when Maria Elena Salinas asked Sanders for a response, how did he reply?

SANDERS: Well, when we talk about efforts to assist immigrants, Secretary Clinton prevailed upon the governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who wanted to do the right thing and provide driver’s license to these who were undocumented, she said don’t do it, and New York State still does not do it. In Vermont, by the way, I worked with officials, and undocumented people in Vermont do have the ability to get driver’s license.

Both of them then sought to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the president when it came to deportations. Here’s Clinton, plainly arguing that deportation is an unthinkable punishment for anyone who isn’t a violent felon:

CLINTON: But if you are asking about everyone who is already here, undocumented immigrants, the 11-12 million who are living here, my priorities are to deport violent criminals, terrorists, and anyone who threatens our safety. So I do not have the same policy as the current administration does. I think it’s important that we move to our comprehensive immigration reform, but at the same time, stop the raids, stop the round-ups, stop the deporting of people who are living here doing their lives, doing their jobs, and that’s my priority.

[…] Of the people, the undocumented people living in our country, I do not want to see them deported. I want to see them on a path to citizenship. That is exactly what I will do.

A few thoughts. First, this is insane. One doesn’t need to be a sharp-taloned hawk to think it’s nuts for the United States to be stumbling over itself to bring as many semi-refugees into the country as it can. Second, it’s just amazing how the partisan pressure on the Left is so diametrically opposite that on the Right.

Third, I really think this is going to haunt them. As with abortion, Americans have a somewhat complicated and contradictory attitude on immigration (to summarize this poll, immigration has been a good thing, but only causes problems). And in both cases, opinion tends to coalesce around mild-t0-moderate opposition, though people are hyper-sensitive to anything that can appear — or be portrayed — as overreach.

Come the general election, we should be able to use this to our advantage. Whether we will is a different matter.

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  1. La Tapada Member
    La Tapada

    Did it make a difference that they were on Univisión, in front of Jorge (Hor-hay) Ramos?

    • #1
    • March 10, 2016, at 8:46 AM PST
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  2. Paul A. Rahe Contributor
    Paul A. Rahe

    It could be that in November there will be only one issue on which the election will turn: Will we or won’t we have open borders?

    • #2
    • March 10, 2016, at 9:15 AM PST
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  3. Roberto, Crusty Old Timer LLC Member
    Roberto, Crusty Old Timer LLCJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    I found it significant how eager both candidates were to circumvent Congress or completely abandon enforcing the law.

    Sanders-

    SANDERS: …what I believe right now is not only that we need comprehensive immigration reform, if the Congress does not do its job, as president of the United States I will use the executive powers of that office to do what has to be done, to do what President Obama did, and expand on that.

    SALINAS: But if you’re saying that you would…

    (APPLAUSE)

    Clinton-

    CLINTON: So I do not have the same policy as the current administration does. I think it’s important that we move to our comprehensive immigration reform, but at the same time, stop the raids, stop the round-ups, stop the deporting of people who are living here doing their lives, doing their jobs, and that’s my priority.

    (APPLAUSE)

    Apparently we are voting for a monarch these days.

    • #3
    • March 10, 2016, at 9:21 AM PST
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  4. billy Inactive
    billy

    Paul A. Rahe:It could be that in November there will be only one issue on which the election will turn: Will we or won’t we have open borders?

    That isn’t the issue.

    The question to be resolved: Are we citizens or subjects?

    And in true American democratic tradition, we get to vote on it.

    • #4
    • March 10, 2016, at 9:39 AM PST
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  5. A-Squared Coolidge
    A-Squared

    Don’t forget the Sander’s quote from 85 on Cuba

    SANDERS: You may recall way back in, when was it, 1961, they invaded Cuba, and everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world. All the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro. They forgot that he educated their kids, gave them health care, totally transformed their society.

    When asked if he regretted that quoted, Sanders basically said he was fine with it.

    it would be wrong not to state that in Cuba they have made some good advances in health care. They are sending doctors all over the world. They have made some progress in education.

    Though I did notice this bit

    Look, let’s look at the facts here. Cuba is, of course, an authoritarian undemocratic country, and I hope very much as soon as possible it becomes a democratic country.

    emphasis added

    So, he’s fine with authoritarian governments as long as they are democratic, and wouldn’t all democratic authoritarian countries follow his socialist model?

    • #5
    • March 10, 2016, at 1:36 PM PST
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  6. Freesmith Inactive
    Freesmith

    This exchange has been the Democratic Party position for decades. They have merely tried to hide it before to fool those Americans who still romanticize immigration, and who fail to distinguish pre-1965 with post-1965.

    I mean, last year the US handed out one million green cards and seven hundred thousand visas – how much more “open borders” can we get?

    Furthermore, other than the pathway to citizenship the Republican donor class wants all of the same policies as Hillary and Bernie. The donors too prefer subjects to citizens. Citizens are so stiff-necked and impolite.

    Folks, it ain’t 1910 anymore. We now have a plush welfare state. Automation is proceeding from the industrial to the service sector of the economy, making domestic unskilled labor less needed than ever. Thirteen percent of the people on the US are foreign-born, the highest percentage in our history. Why? And what percentage is enough?

    The Democrats have given you their answer. Here’s mine:

    “Today, America needs fewer immigrants.”

    Spread the word.

    • #6
    • March 10, 2016, at 3:50 PM PST
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