Off the Kuff covered a shoddy attempt by new Harris County Tax Assessor Don Sumners to disallow voter registration efforts at naturalization ceremonies.

Letters From Texas projected out the grim possibilities for state representative Aaron Peña as he contemplates switching to the Republican Party.

Now is the time to ask Larry Summers to do something REALLY useful. You know, for the good of the country.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks Barack Obama is a putz and Bernie Sanders is a hero. UT professor Galbraith says it all.

Edmundo Rocha’s pays tribute to the passing of civil rights activist and former San Antonio Express-News columnist Carlos Guerra. An unsung hero who never gave up hope for a better Texas.

Aaron Pena’s impending party flip is tied directly to his 2012 Congressional ambitions. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs explains.

Bay Area Houston dog piles on State Representative Aaron Pena. He could get with this. Or he could get with that.

lightseeker at TexasKaos reports on Rick Perry’s latest foray into half-truths and self-serving opportunism. This time he is whipping up a big batch of whacked out claims about the cost of providing health care to uninsured Texans. Check out the details here: Rick Perry , Rabble Rouser.

Public Citizen Texas over at TexasVox wants to remind everyone to show up to testify at the Sunset Advsory Commission meeting Dec 15th on the Railroad Commission and TCEQ. Details are at their blog.

Neil at Texas Liberal ran a post with pictures he took last spring at the Houston Ship Channel. Neil’s view is that if the world around us is at times not ideal, there are still many things to consider, learn about, and maybe even embrace. This does not mean we should be resigned to a polluted landscape. Neil has been stressing of late in his blog the need for action by average people in the face of the newly empowered Republican party in Austin and Washington. We know from the TPA posts listed here this week that things are a mess. The question is what are we going to do in reply to this mess?

As the deadline to file for a place on the 2010 March primary ballot drew near, there was lots of activity on the Democratic side: Kinky Friedman followed Hank Gilbert over to the race for agriculture commissioner, Linda Chavez-Thompson was rumored to be running for lt. governor, and, late on Friday, Ronnie Earle dropped his name in the hat for that same post. There’s more on all this news from PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

BARNETT SHALE GAS THREATENS HUMAN HEALTH !!! TXsharon posted the Final Results of the DISH TX health survey at Bluedaze.

WhosPlayin broke the story about a former Republican County Commissioner who got arrested this week for shoplifting a vacuum cleaner.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why some men in power (here, here, here, here and here) think that abusing women and children is their right? Why does Senator Cornyn choose to enable rapists?

Over at Bay Area Houston, John Coby is bored and thinks Kay Bailey Hutchison’s commercial sounds like a Whataburger commercial.

Looking for ways to green up your life? Start by making some thoughtful changes to the way you spend your holiday, and check out Texas Vox’ Green Up Your Life: Holiday Edition for tips and tricks!

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote about the fifth anniversary of the terrible Indian Ocean tunami. Five Years Since Terrible Indian Ocean Tsunami—People Are Recovering While many are still suffering from the impact of this killer wave, there are also many who are recovering and getting back their lives.

The folks over at McBlogger are desperate for your help! Find out how you can do them a solid when you help get a planet named for the blog!

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men covers the utter failure of tort “reform” in Texas (with a h/t to John Coby.)

The Texas Cloverleaf highlights the charge against the Denton County District Attorney’s office of racial discrimination and harassment in the workplace

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the fact that elected Texas Republicans still have no sensible ideas about how to pay for roads, Dewhurst and transportation funding.

Off the Kuff took a look at precinct data in the Houston Mayor’s runoff.

lightseeker has a question for you over at TexasKaos, Is Arnold’s California a foretaste of our nations’ future? Check out his analysis in Deadlock, facts, Partisans -Is California a Fore taste of Our Collective Future?.

XicanoPwr reports that anti-immigration grinches are wanting to replace dreams of success with a lumps of coal by filing a lawsuit challenging Texas’ DREAM Act, the statute that allows undocumented students to pay in-state rates, provided, they meet certain criteria. Their grinch-like behavior would rather punish these extremely vulnerable students for the sins of their undocumented parents, instead of rewarding them for wanting to contribute to our society by making college tuition a bit more affordable, since they already are ineligible for financial aid.

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog is excited that Houston has one of the first hospital Asian care units in the nation

A new chapter is beginning. I am now being asked how I succeeded in spreading my message and how it can be replicated. Yes dear readers, I am now considered an online media expert. I have been asked to be a co-presenter with Kety Esquivel of NCLR’s We Can Stop the Hate, Nezua of The Unapologetic Mexican and Jill Garvey of Imagine 2050 and and Raven Brooks, Executive Director of Netroots Nation, in a community building workshop on new media techniques for this year’s National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) Annual Conference in Chicago. The Annual Conference will be held July 25 – 28 at McCormick Place West in downtown Chicago, IL.

“New Media” is still still in its infancy and is rapidly changing and it is easy to get lost. This workshop is intended to people a firm understand to navigate this rapidly developing field to explore new communications strategies and tools, especially the power of networking with like-minded communities for local/global actions and sharing of resources.

If you are planning to attend NCLR’s Annual Conference and want to find out how you or your organization can utilize all that new media has to offer, then this workshop is for just for you. Hope to see you there.

There report explores the growing electoral clout of naturalized citizens and immigrant communities or as they are now being grouped electorally “New Americans.” The report is being touted as being highly innovative in that for the first time it examines “New Americans” as a distinct group and acknowledges the voting power of not only naturalized US Citizens, but their US-born children born after 1965. These children are of particular interest because having watched a parent navigate through a new society and culture, they have personal connections with both the efforts made by immigrants and the reactions of society to them.

Thursday’s briefing will provide insight into the ranks of New American voters, along with Latino and Asian voters, who have been growing rapidly this decade and will likely play a pivotal role in elections at all levels in the years to come – particularly in battleground states like Florida, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Immigration Policy Center Blogger Call The New American Electorate: The Growing Political Power of Immigrants and Their Children
Ground-breaking Analysis of America’s Fastest Growing Voting Bloc

Speakers:
Rob Paral and Madura Wijewardena, Rob Paral & Associates
Tuyet G. Duong, Asian American Justice Center
Clarissa Martinez, National Council of La Raza
Frank Sharry, America’s Voice
Angela Kelley, Immigration Policy Center

The presentation that was given in the conference can be found here and the full report here.

This is what the study found -

2006: Close to one in 10 registered voters was a New American
- 7.6 million were Naturalized Americans, accounting for 5.6 percent of registered voters.
- 4.1 million were Post‐1965 Children of Immigrants, accounting for 3.0 percent of registered voters.

Latinos and Asians Accounted for 9.3 Percent of All Registered Voters in 2006
- 9.3 million Latinos comprised 6.8 percent of registered voters
- 3.3 million Asians accounted for 2.5 percent of registered voters

The Number of Latinos and Asians Registered to Vote Increased Nearly 46 Percent from 1996 to 2004
- The number of Latinos registered to vote grew from 6.6 million to 9.3 million—an increase of 41.6
percent.
- The number of Asians registered to vote increased from 2.1 million to 3.4 million—an increase of 58.6
percent

New Americans, Latinos, and Asians Look to Immigration When Voting
Immigration appears to be a key issue driving the rise in naturalization rates and voter registration among New Americans, Latinos, and Asians. New Americans, Latinos, and Asians, regardless of their immigration status, all feel the impact of the current environment—some because they or close family members are immigrants, others because they may “look like” immigrants in the eyes of government authorities and the broader public. Anti‐immigrant policies affect not just immigrants, but the Latino and Asian communities in general.

The political power of New Americans, Latinos, and Asians will continue to grow
The political power of New American voters will continue to increase in coming years as more and more children of immigrants come of voting age, more long‐term legal immigrants become naturalized citizens, and increasing numbers of New Americans register to vote.

The key to the electoral power of New Americans is voter registration. If more New Americans register to vote, it is likely that they will turn out in high numbers, thereby increasing their share of the electorate.

Since the agenda of this conference call was on this report, the remaining speakers mostly echoed the finding of the report.

Here is a CSPAN link of The New American Electorate

I find this information very eye opening in light of recent events regarding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Hidden in an article about Congress not “unlikely to approve a tax rebate before President Bush leaves office,” Pelosi also signed the Democrats will have to sacrifice the fight of “giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Pelosi said: “Maybe there never is a path to citizenship if you came here illegally. I would hope that there could be, but maybe there isn’t.”

This is not sitting well with the member of The Sanctuary.

I find it odd that Pelosi would be making this statement so close to the election, knowing that taking this stance is how the GOP lost the lost the Hispanic vote.

What concerns me, Pelosi is not a person who is willing to back off once she has made up her mind. And this not the first time she has taken off an important issue off the take right before a national election. Last time she decided to take a bold stance and deciding to go against the will of the people was the issue of impeachment during the 2006 election.

While Pelosi may not respect the will of the people, hopefully the new members of Congress will, especially those in the battleground state, knowing that it was the increase of Latinos and Asians voters who help put them there.

Kety was eloquent, on-target, and very professional. We are proud of you Kety, you did an awesome job. YOU ROCKED!!!!

CNN transcript below the fold

CHETRY: Well, joining me here in New York this morning is Kety Esquivel. She is a Christian progressive blogger and the founder of the blog crossleft.org.

Thanks for being with us today.

KETY ESQUIVEL, FOUNDER OF CROSSLEFT.ORG: My pleasure.

CHETRY: Good to see you. You know, a lot of people talk about getting out the Latino vote. A lot of people associate Latino votes with immigration. But you have a chance in your blog to communicate daily with Latinos around the country.

What are some of the biggest concerns, if you can boil it down?

ESQUIVEL: Of course. Well, the Latino community is definitely interested in the immigration issue that the candidates are speaking to. But there are many other issues that are also important to our community.

There are issues that are important to the American population as a whole. Issues of the economy, issues of education, health care, et cetera. We, at the sanctuary, a group of Latino bloggers came together to put together a survey speaking to all of these different issues of interest to our community.

CHETRY: You’re listening very closely to what the candidates have to say about these issues. You have not taken a position yet? You’re not supporting or endorsing either one of the candidate so far, correct?

ESQUIVEL: Exactly. Right.

CHETRY: I understand that you guys did send in a questionnaire, though, with a lot of questions about issues that are important to Latino voters. You’re still waiting to hear back.

ESQUIVEL: Exactly, yes. We are waiting and we are a little bit frustrated because with all of the energy that both campaigns have been putting into trying to garner the Latino vote, for them not to respond, creates a pause for us, you know. We are wondering why aren’t they responding. Why the silence?

CHETRY: So you sent this out at the end of June. You’re still waiting for a respond. So, it hasn’t been a month yet. So you’re going to give them a little bit more time to get back to you about some of those issues.

ESQUIVEL: That’s correct. And we’re hopeful that — you know, we were reported actually in “The Wall Street Journal” blog, through here, this conversation on CNN, that the candidates will be looking and listening and that they will respond so that we actually have specific policies as well as the lip service that they’ve been paying to us today.

CHETRY: All right. Well, they certainly been at least trying to get out there and get the Latino vote. They spoke to the National Council of La Raza. It’s one of the country’s largest Hispanic organizations.

And Senator Obama actually accused Senator McCain of backing down on immigration reform for political reasons. Let’s hear what McCain’s response was to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCAIN: At a moment of great difficulty in my campaign, when my critics said it would be political suicide for me to do so, I helped author with Senator Kennedy comprehensive immigration reform and fought for its package, not once but twice.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHETRY: It really did almost cost him supporting this, which included some pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. It almost cost him the Republican nomination. Is that resonating with Latino voters that he tried?

ESQUIVEL: I think that our community is very interested in what both of these candidates have to say as it relates to the undocumented workers. And specifically, John McCain is a candidate that we’re watching very interestingly because there’s been some differences in so far as what he stated as it relates to immigration, as it relates to things such as the Dream Act.

And so, for us, it’s very important to see consistency. So, what he says to us we’re hoping that he will also say to the general electorate. Therefore, when he’s in office, hopefully he will be having the positive stances that he stated in such conferences such as the National Council of La Raza, which has just happened.

CHETRY: Yes. On paper it seems that he and Barack Obama actually have a quite similar plan. They talk about border security first. They talk about some pathway to citizenship. They talk about many things as it relates to immigration.

Yet, Barack Obama is, at least in the latest polling, he’s got 60 percent of the Hispanic vote to McCain’s 30 percent in a recent poll. Why is he seeming to have a much more Latino support?

ESQUIVEL: Well, I think one of the things that has given us pause as a community has been the flip-flopping, has been him going back and forth on different issues that are important to our community. So if, for example, he says to our community in a closed- door room meeting –

CHETRY: You’re talking about McCain here?

ESQUIVEL: Correct. If he says to us one thing, we want to be able to see that that’s the same thing that he thinks the American populace as a whole. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen that consistency. And that’s I think what’s giving a lot of people pause.

Also, Obama has been stating that he’s very interested in the Latino vote and we’re very interested in hearing back from his campaign with specifics as it relates to policies. That’s really what we’re going to gauge — what our response will be when it comes to the ‘08 election.

CHETRY: All right. Very interesting. Kety Esquivel, the Christian progressive blogger of crossleft.org. Thanks for being with us this morning.

ESQUIVEL: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

CNN American Morning

In her blog post (which I, Edmundo “XicanoPwr” Rocha, happened to be mentioned) Rivas writes:

Latino bloggers covering the presidential campaign reacted this week to recent efforts by both candidates with their usual spotting of simplistic stereotypes in the candidates’ outreach efforts, and with a new joint initiative that raises some tough questions — 38 to be precise.

A group of bloggers responded to Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama’s speeches to the League of United Latin American Citizensand the National Council of la Raza, with coordinated posts about a 38-point questionnaire that The Sanctuary, a pro-immigrant group, sent to the presidential candidates last month demanding answers on immigration policy issues. Neither McCain nor Obama has responded to the questionnaire.
…
The group effort also highlighted how the candidates cleaned and tightened their rhetoric for their general election campaigns. In a July 9 post, on the third day of the Lulac convention, Roberto Lovato asked for “fewer ‘Si se puedes’ and more of things like ’substancia’, ‘realidad’ and ‘transparencia.’”

“prision” (the exponential growth of the Latino prison population)

“Pentagono” (the multi-billion dollar effort to trick Latino youth into joining the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and other armed forces)

“Muerte, detencion y migrantes” (Immigration issues like the thousands of dead in the desert, death, sexual and physical abuse in ICE detention centers, thousands of raids and other terror inflicted on immigrant children and adults)

“pobreza” (the unprecedented challenge of a country in which the wealthiest 1% has over $2 trillion more than the bottom 90%, according to the Nation magazine. In other words, the candidates won’t be asked in Espanol or en Ingles, “How come the wealthiest 1% have $19 trillion while the rest of us 300,000,000 only have a combined wealth totaling less than $17 trillion?”)

And to top it all off Kety of the Sanctuary (also a board member of the Institute for Progressive Christianity and founder of CrossLeft) has been chosen by our group to be our spokesperson on CNN. She will be appearing live tomorrow (today 7/15) on CNN at 8:24AM.

Score one make that TWO for the Latinosphere. Like I said, it is time to stop the rhetoric and the “Mariachi Politics.”

Neither McCain nor Obama has yet to respond to our questionnaire. ¡Ay te watch-o, cucaracho! The clock is ticking, tick tock tick tock.

Like clockwork, they roll out the red carpet and wine and dine every Hispanic leader from California to Texas, Miami to New York, and throughout the Midwest. While they do this, they will gather up all the little people and throw out a few Spanish catch phrases, such as “Si Se Puede,” to win their vote; but after the election, in the blink of an eye, they disappear and forget about the Latino community for three years, until the cycle begins again.

I am not going to kid anybody but some Latina/o bloggers are beginning to feel that the Obama campaign is taking the Latino vote for granted, since the xenophobic wing of the GOP has virtually chased away their Latino electorate with their nativist stance on immigration. If the Obama campaign continues to go down this path, history will likely repeat itself.

In the early 1970s, Chicanos/as throughout the Southwest began flexing their political muscle by forming a political third party, La Raza Unida Party (RUP), because of the unresponsiveness to the needs of the Mexican-American community by the two controlling parties. Although the RUP does not exist anymore, there were history-making years because thousands of Mexican-Americans repudiated the Democratic Party’s dictatorship. During those four years, the RUP accomplished more what many third parties never achieved – enough political clout to shake up the power structure of the Democratic Party in Texas.

That was then and this is now. Although often considered to be homogeneous, the Latino community contains many culturally diverse groups than it did in the 1970s. However, there is still a hunger, a starvation, for our community to begin asserting ourselves again at the polls and dispel the old stereotype that we do not vote. When it comes to politics, you will always find those who will be loyal to there party no matter how unresponsive they are to the Latino community, however, make no mistake, if the Latino vote continues to feel that the Obama campaign taking their vote for granted, he could lose the more moderate Latino vote to John McCain. This is exactly what McCain is trying to capitalize during his recent secret meeting with Hispanic leaders.

Recently, many of us within the Latino/a blogosphere have decided to grade the bull by the horns and start to flex our own political muscle. This all started during Obama’s conference call about McCain’s closed-door meeting. During that conference call, three Latina bloggers – Liza Sabater of culturekitchen.com and The Daily Gotham, Marisa Treviño of Latina Lista, and Kety Esquivel of CrossLeft.org – took the Obama campaign to the woodshed over their poor efforts to reach out to the Latino community.

Soon after the conference call, a group of us Latino/a bloggers (CrossLeft, Culture Kitchen, Citizen Orange,Latino Politico, The Unapologetic Mexican, Migra Matters, Para Justicia y Libertad, Mamita Mala and Zuky) from The Sanctuary, a web base grassroots community of pro-migrant, human-rights, and civil-rights bloggers and online activists dedicated to the enactment of meaningful immigration reform, decided to draft a no holds barred survey on specific immigration issues for the presidential candidates to fill out.

I must admit it was very exciting to take part in this group project. I really learned a lot. However, I feel most of the credit should go to Kety for taking the lead and carrying the project through. None of this would have occurred if she had not shared her idea of developing a candidate survey with us. Considering we all spread throughout the US, she made sure nobody was excluded from this project.

As one of the founding members of The Sanctuary, my hope is that this site will not only address immigration issues, but can be a virtual settlement house similar to Jane Addams’ Hull House. In 1889, Jane Addams along with Ellen Gates Starr founded the social settlement Hull-House in Chicago, IL. Addams created a community center where people – of any age, race, gender, and ethnicity – not only contributed to the community as a whole, but also were allowed to develop and share their skills with anybody who was willing to learn.

During the 1920s, Hull House had expanded to expanded to include thirteen buildings to provide “kindergarten and day care facilities for the children of working mothers; an employment bureau; an art gallery; libraries; English and citizenship classes; and theater, music and art classes.” Hull-House also provided activities such as a Labor Museum, the Jane Club for single working girls, meeting places for trade union groups, and a wide array of cultural events. While The Sanctuary is not be able to provide direct social services like Addams’ Hull-House, however, we can function as a networking hub in order to connect people to these services in their area.

What made Hull-House special, the settlement house also advocated for legislative reforms at the municipal, state and federal levels, addressing issues such as child labor, women’s suffrage, and immigration policy. Hull House influenced legislation on child labor laws, occupational safety and health provisions, compulsory education, immigrant rights, and pension laws. My vision for The Sanctuary is that this site can also function as an advocacy center.

Jane Addams was a true visionary and one of the main reasons I became a social worker. Ms. Addams promoted the idea that access to opportunity was the key to successful participation in a democratic, self-governing society. She foresaw a compassionate, interdependent world revolving around the principles of social justice, fairness, tolerance, respect, equal opportunity, civic responsibility and hope for every individual, family and community. It is these principles I try to emulate as an activist.

But I digress. The survey we created to get real answer to the tough questions surrounding immigration, such as free trade, foreign policy, abuse of power by ICE and among other political issues not covered by the media or the candidates. It is time these politicians stop the rhetoric, worrying if their answer will be spun as proof of flip-flopping. We are in a crisis and it is time they provide us with a straight answer. This is why the survey was developed.

It has been about three weeks since we sent out our survey to John McCain and Barack Obama, only one candidate has acknowledge our survey, but has yet filled it out. According to Maegan at VivirLatino, “the Obama camp says a response is forthcoming.” However, we had no choice but to take extreme measures to force them to respond. We published the survey on a list-serv which includes influential people within the Hispanic community. While some saw this move unnecessary, we were able to get a reply from Vince Casillas, Obama’s Hispanic Outreach Coordinator:

Just so you know we haven’t forgot this survey. As you can imagine we recieve hundreds and hundreds of these which is no excuse just a reality. I’ll follow up with the status and hopefully have an update this afternoon. Thanks.

Vince Casillas

In Casillas’ attempt to reassure us that our survey is not being ignored; still leaves us to wonder if they are taking us seriously. Senor Casillas, what happened to our update? I know you mentioned that you are a one man team, but if I recall, you said that the higher ups were going to allocate some people to help you. If so, couldn’t you have gotten someone to assist you by sending us a quick message to let us know what transpired when you followed-up? Do we need to advocate for you so that your higher up provide you with the resources to make sure you are not overwhelmed? Talk to us. Communication is a two way street.

As for McCain, not a single word. I wouldn’t be surprised if our survey fell into the hands of some nativist or so corporatist elite.

This is my message to Barack Obama and John McCain. I am not surprised we have not heard from you. In fact, it wouldn’t shock me if you thought our survey was probably a bit complex, which means you would have to assign some flunky from your campaign or some Congressional aide to do some heavy research. But I doubt that is the reason. The obvious reason for either the delay or refusal to acknowledge our existence, the survey was purposely controversial, while at the same not leaving you a way out. There is a reason why we left out a “no comment” option.

We no longer want to take part in this viscous political “Christopher Columbus Syndrome” ploy. We are tired of getting the short end of the stick once the elections are over. Unlike other organizations who prefer to be force-fed the collective illusions on the wall of Plato’s Cave. Some of us are learning how to filter out the rhetoric. Our eyes are opening up. And in the spirit of competition, we don’t have to limit ourselves because there are other options to choice from. See, some people have been brain washed to think people are only allowed to run as a Republican or a Democrat. It is this reason people pick the unthinkable third option by not voting. But what if they were given a 3rd or a 4th, shouldn’t they have the right know? Shouldn’t they have the right to choose who will represent them?

Thomas Jefferson once said, “When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny.”

This is why we chose to send our survey to the Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and from what I have seen, I am sure she and her running mate Rosa Clemente are more likely to fill it out without giving us the run around. While I may not have the luxury to vote for her this November here in Texas, I am sure Ms. McKinney will be able to pick up a good number of Latino voters in other states with the right outreach coordinator by her side.

While she may not be on the November ballot in Texas, I am pretty sure if former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente had an effective Latino outreach coordinator who understood the complexity of the Latina/o community, she could give both McCain and Obama a run for their money.

It is time to stop the rhetoric and step up to the political plate. You may think you can give us the round around and hope we will go away quietly, think again. As Marisa Treviño pointed out, given that both candidates are appearing at the National Council of La Raza conference this weekend, it would be wise if they get back to use quickly before this story gets national attention now that some members of the news media, such as Alicia Stewart with CNN, caught wind of it. Momentum is already picking up around the blogosphere.

The ball is in your court and we are waiting for your reply.

Other Sanctuary Members’ Writing in Solidarity:
The Sanctuary
Latina Lista
Zuky
Latino Politico
Problem Chylde
Vivir Latino
The Unapologetic Mexican
CrossLeft
Citizen Orange

Read the entire questionnaire

CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE

Name:
Party Affiliation:
Address:
Home Phone:
Campaign Phone Office:
Office Sought/Opponents in:
If you are a State candidate, please indicate your State Registration Number:

The Sanctuary is a multi-issue organization working in the service of human rights, human reasoning and progressive discussion. Therefore it is critical for us to understand your position on the following issues. Please give specific answers to the questions and answer them as thoroughly as possible. Please type your answers. Use additional sheets as necessary.

1. Could you please articulate what you think are the most pressing issues for the U.S. immigrant community, at home AND abroad, and how you would hope to address those issues as President?

2. Do you support comprehensive immigration reform?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

3. What policy conditions would comprehensive immigration reform have to meet in order for you to support it? Please be specific?

4. Do you support the establishment of an expanded guest worker program?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

5. Do you support the expansion and construction of a virtual border along the U.S./Mexico border?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

6. Do you support the switch from family based immigration standards to the merit based system put forth in the last round of Senate CIR?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

7. Do you support the “touchback” requirements of previous comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) legislation that would require undocumented immigrants to return to their countries of origin in order to normalize their status?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

8. Would you support the addition of funding for stricter enforcement of general labor standards such as wage and hour or safety regulations as
part of CIR legislation?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

9. Would you support an increase in the cap of low-skilled
employment-based green cards issued each year from it’s current level of
5000?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

10. Would you favor raising the 65,000 cap on high-skilled H-1B temporary work visas, in light of the fact that in the last two years, H-1B visas were quickly filled in a matter of days?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

11a. If so, would you also favor limiting the number of H-1B professionals a company can hire?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

11b. If so, would you also favor limiting the number of H-1B professionals employment brokers are allowed to recruit?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

11 c. If so, would you favor including meaningful prevailing wage requirements keyed to the Service Contract Act and Davis-Bacon Act?

Yes No

Please explain

12. Do you have a position on providing materials concerning health care and public benefits programs in languages other than English?
Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

13. Do you support lifetime eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for disabled and/or elderly refugees and asylees who are eligible for SSI except for a lack of U.S. citizenship?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position

14. What are your feelings on immigrant detention?

15. Do you support family detention centers?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

16. Do you support private companies profiting of of immigrant detention?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

17. Do you support the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act, the bill that would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop procedures to ensure adequate medical care for all detainees held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

18. Do you support the United American Families Act, the bill that would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow permanent partners of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, including same-sex partners, to obtain permanent residency?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

19. Do you support the community service requirement of previous DREAM Act legislation that would grant provisional (conditional) legal residency to immigrant graduates who perform 910 hours of volunteer community service?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

20. Would you support an immediate moratorium on community and work site raids by ICE?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

21. Do you approve of ICE’s use of excessive force to conduct immigration raids as seen recently in Postiville, Iowa?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

22. Do you support the Families First Immigration Enforcement Act, the bill that would provide for safe and humane policies and procedures pertaining to the arrest, detention, and processing of aliens in immigration enforcement operations?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

23. Would you support the incorporation of requirements that would tie both future economic aid and trade agreements to substantive benchmarks in sender nations that would alleviate some of the economic and humanitarian conditions that foster continued migration?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

24. Would you renegotiate the NAFTA last phase that just went into effect that lifts restrictions on more US agricultural products, particularly poultry, imported into Mexico?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

25. Do you support cancelling or renegotiating NAFTA?”

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

26. Do you support providing subsidies for corn-based ethanol?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

27. Do you support the farm bill, more specifically the agricultural subsidies it contains?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

28. Do you support a restructuring of trade-distorting US farm subsidies?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

29. Do you support a significant shift in subsidies to help farmers adopt conservation and renewable energy practices on farms?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

30. Do you support Plan Colombia (the Plan that was meant to combat the principal threat to the nation’s political and economic elite: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)) even though after closer examination of Plan Colombia, it has been revealed that the Plan states that public companies and banks are to be privatized leading to massive layoffs and further increasing unemployment at a time when cutbacks in government spending has removed any vestiges of providing a social safety net for those affected?
Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

31. Do you support Plan Mexico, which has been considered to be a duplicated of Plan Colombia, which has entrenched violence and corruption in Colombia while failing to reduce drug flow?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

32.Do you support canceling or renegotiating Plan Mexico?

Yes No

Please explain.

How long have you held this position?

33. What would you do to address the racist and nativist rhetoric that is becoming mainstreamed and that is tied to a rising crime wave fueled by the same sentiment?

34. What are you going to do to take a more global approach to the
issue of migration?

35. What would you do to provide opportunities in the countries that
migrants are fleeing from?

36. How do you address the overwhelming amount of money the U.S. federal government spends on defense and military expenditures, at home and abroad, and would you see to it that less money is spent on
militarization and more money is spent on social programs?

37. What leadership have you taken on immigration issues, including but not limited to the issues addressed in this questionnaire?

38. On what immigration issues will you take leadership?