Mediaboss Marketing

With Sen. Bernie Sanders announcing that he is staying in the race against Joe Biden, attention turned to their first one on one debate in Washington D.C. on Sunday, where the Biden campaign has telegraphed publicly, and suggested to Mediaite, that Sanders previous votes on immigration will come up again.

Biden previously brought up Sanders vote against an immigration overhaul at the February debate, saying the only person in here that has a worse record on immigration is Bernie, because Bernie voted against the 2007 bill. Whenever this topic comes up, Sanders uses the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) as sword and shield, because the national Latino organization opposed the bill, as well. Unfortunately, LULAC, among other groups, Latino groups, saw that bill having provisions akin to slavery, Joe, Sanders replied.

When Beto ORourke endorsed him, Biden started to say that the other guy voted against immigration reform, but stopped himself. Asked about it, a Biden campaign aide coyly suggested it would come up again. Asked for comment, senior advisor Cristobal Alex slammed Sanders for the vote.

In 2007, Senator Sanders sided with Republicans to kill a sweeping reform package that would have brought six million undocumented immigrants out of the shadows and onto a pathway to citizenship, Alex said. The Latino community needs a president who will have our backs and Joe Biden will do just that, by ending Trumps disgusting immigration policies and introducing an immigration reform bill in his first week in office.

A high-level Univision source told Mediaite they expected influential anchor Jorge Ramos, who has been tough on Biden on immigration throughout the primary, to also go after Sanders on his immigration record, which a second Univision source confirmed. But that plan has been thrown into question after Ramos was exposed to the coronavirus and will now not serve as a debate moderator.

A senior Sanders aide said the campaign isnt worried because he is more progressive than Biden. We have an immigration platform written by Dreamers on his campaign, so we welcome that debate.

For these reasons its worth examining how Sanders talked about the 2007 immigration bill at the time, and how he has couched his opposition since, ahead of the March 15 debate on Sunday.

In a June 21, 2007 interview on CNN, Sanders was most worried about the economic implications of the guest worker programs.

If poverty is increasing and if wages are going down, I dont 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, he said.

The bill would have legalized more than 11 million undocumented immigrants and created a temporary worker program, while strengthening punishments against employers who hired workers illegally and strengthening border security. At the time LULAC executive director Brent Wilkes said it would separate families and lead to the exploitation of immigrant workers, but if this worried the Vermont senator, he didnt bring it up with Dobbs.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Sanders, as he is now, was also very concerned with big-money, special interests, leading the way on the immigration bill, but said nothing as Dobbs lamented socioethnic-centric interest groups pushing amnesty legislation with very little regard for the traditions of this country, the values of this country or the constituents.

And as we know, the principal industries which hire the bulk of illegal aliens, that is construction, landscaping, Dobbs continued, using the term for undocumented immigrants that many on the right have embraced, but Democrats have since shunned. Those are all industries in which wages are declining. I dont hear that discussed on the Senate floor by the proponents of this amnesty legislation.

Thats right. They have no good response, Sanders said, before adding that he read that a lot of people coming into the country are coming in as lifeguards. I guess we cant find thats right. We cant find American workers to work as lifeguards.

Dobbs went on, railing against Bill Gates as a witness to Congress, telling Ted Kennedy he wanted unlimited H1B visas, obviously uninformed to the fact that seven out of 10 visas under the H1B program goes to Indian corporations that are outsourcing those positions to American corporations in this country and that four out of five of those jobs that are supposed to be high-skilled jobs are actually category one jobs, which is low skill.

Well, you raise a good point, in that this whole immigration guest worker program is the other side of the trade issue, Sanders responded. On one hand, you have large multinationals trying to shut down plants in the America, move to China, and on the other hand, you have the service industry bringing in low wage workers from abroad. The result is the same middle class gets shrunken and wages go down.

By the time February 2016 rolled around, Hillary Clinton was hitting Sanders on his 2007 vote to kill immigration reform. Then, Sanders emphasized different reasoning. The Southern Poverty Law Center, among other groups, said that the guest worker programs that were embedded in this agreement were akin to slavery akin to slavery where people came into this country to do guest work were abused, were exploited.

A month later, at the Miami debate in March 2016, Sanders debuted a line about LULAC opposing the bill.

With regard to that 2007 immigration bill, as you may know, LULAC, the major Hispanic organization in his country, also opposed that bill as did many other Latino organizations, he said. You know, I think its very hard to make the case that Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama, me, La Raza, United Farmworkers, Dolores Huerta, leaders of the Latino community, would have supported a bill that actually promoted modern slavery. That was one of the many excuses used not to vote for the 2007 bill.

As Clinton did then, Biden said at the debate last month that there would be millions of new American citizens if immigration reform had passed in 2007, which is true.

Its also true that groups had reservations about the 2007 legislation, which seemed to be less of an issue in the 2013 Senate overhaul. Sanders said he still had serious concerns over the guest worker provisions in that bill, but ultimately supported the legislation.

This cycle, Sanders has grown his support from the Latino community across the country, including young Latinos who have always supported him strongly, but also from many of their parents. The issue impacts the community but immigration thus far hasnt come up often, or in a robust way, in debates.

That could change Sunday.

Have a tip we should know? [emailprotected]

The rest is here:
Sanders To Lou Dobbs On Immigration Bill In 2007: I Dont Know Why We Need Millions Of People Coming Into This Country - Mediaite

Published Mar 13, 2020 at 8:00 am(Updated Mar 13, 2020 at 8:00 am)

Town hall meeting: Colin Anderson, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of National Security, told an audience of about 30 people that the immigration bill was focused on mixed-status families and the repatriation of Bermudians (Owain Johnston-Barnes)

Immigration legislation to be debated next week is only the first step, a town hall meeting was told last night.

Colin Anderson, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of National Security, told an audience of about 30 people that the Bill was focused on mixed-status families and the repatriation of Bermudians.

Speaking at a town hall meeting at CedarBridge Academy, Mr Anderson said: Immigration reform means something different for everybody.

In some places I talk about immigration reform and they all want to talk about work permits.

Some people want to talk about status or that all they are interested in is the Job Makers Act.

It means something different for everyone, and that is part of the challenge.

He said the changes meant children born overseas to Bermudians up to two generations back will be automatically Bermudian. For children born before the legislation, a Bermudian parent would still have to prove they were domiciled in Bermuda, but he said the process would be simpler.

Children from mixed-status families and earlier left without status, would become eligible to qualify through the Bermuda status of brothers or sisters.

The legislation would also create a two-year window for the children of permanent residents certificate holders to apply for PRC status. Mr Anderson said the window was a temporary solution which would allow the Government two years to tackle the problem of PRC holders.

He said: The issue is how can we have a situation where PRC holders can pass it on indefinitely?

This will lead to other problems. People will not want to stay here indefinitely and be happy that they are not Bermudian. Thats not sustainable.

Mr Anderson added: In the next two years we have to put forward legislation that deals with the issue of PRCs.

Its a compromise, but some times compromise is not a bad word.

The legislation, tabled in the House of Assembly last Friday, is expected to be debated on March 20.

The individuals behind the Supporting Fair Immigration Reform Facebook group backed the legislation earlier this week.

A spokeswoman for the group said: The tabling of this Act is a step in the right direction and shows progress for bipartisan immigration reform.

This Amendment Act will help to regularise families in Bermuda who are divided into different immigration categories.

These people have ties to Bermuda. They have grown up in Bermuda, paid their taxes and continue to live here, but they cant be in the same immigration category as their parents, as the current immigration laws do not allow them to qualify for Bermudian status or a permanent residents certificate.

The spokeswoman added that the Bill was a small step and that more work was needed.

She said: There are much more challenging topics to be discussed.

We look forward to receiving further updates on how this government will fulfil its own stated promise of comprehensive bipartisan immigration reform.

Read the original here:
Immigration Bill just the first step, town hall told - Royal Gazette

Hillary Clintons loss in 2016 was at least partly attributable to the millions of Barack Obama voters who shifted their support to Donald Trump. Four years later, it is now Trump who must worry about losing some of his supporters in November: As many as one in 10 Trump voters is considering voting for somebody else in 2020, according to our analysis of data from the 2019 Cooperative Congressional Election Study survey.

These voters are individuals who neither strongly approve nor strongly disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president. If Democrats want to win over these voters, theyll have to choose their message wisely.

Why should campaigns focus on persuading these potential swing voters rather than turning out nonvoters? Swing voters might be rare but they do exist, and persuading them can be particularly influential for two reasons. First, switching a person from opposing your side to supporting it has a two-vote effect on the margin: It subtracts one vote from your opponent and adds one vote to your tally. Mobilizing an additional supporter to come out to vote has only half that impact.

Second, mobilizing people to vote when they havent done so before can be challenging. Even if Democrats can mobilize more nonvoters to get to the polls, it is not clear that this will help them in swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan, where many nonvoters fit the profile of Trumps base.

The dataset we used, a large academic election survey that YouGov has conducted online every year since 2006, allows us to better understand the share of 2016 Trump voters who are up for grabs. In November 2019, the survey interviewed 18,000 American adults who had been interviewed in 2016 about their vote, asking them how they planned to vote in 2020.

They found that most of Trumps voters plan to stick with him: Ninety percent of those who voted for Trump in 2016 say they plan to vote for him again. But 10 percent seem to be up for grabs. Four percent are already planning to vote for the Democratic candidate, and another 6 percent say that they are still undecided. By contrast, 94 percent of Clinton voters are already committed to the Democrats: just 2 percent of Clintons 2016 voters are planning to vote for Trump in 2020, with another 4 percent undecided.

The largest share of Trumps support in 2016 came from baby boomers, and only 7 percent of them are considering abandoning him in 2020. Trumps older supporters are quite loyal to him. Where Trump is losing the most support is among Americans younger than 40 who voted for him in 2016.

Younger voters are less certain, and as many as 20 percent of Trumps younger voters are considering abandoning him: 9 percent of the millennial and Gen Z voters who supported Trump in 2016 are now planning to vote Democratic in 2020, and another 11 percent say they are not sure how they will vote.

While the persuadable Trump voters are mostly distinguished by their age, they are also more likely to have college degrees and are more likely to be women when compared to the Trump base. They are also much more likely to identify as politically moderate.

Considering that Trump only received about one-third of the vote among millennial and Gen Z voters in 2016, the fact that these voters are at least considering voting for a Democrat in 2020 is important. This erosion of support among younger Republicans continues a trend that has been taking hold since 2016, when many young Mitt Romney voters decided not to vote for Trump. This low support could sink even lower, chipping at the narrow margins we typically see in elections.

But just because these Trump voters say they are persuadable now does not mean that Democrats will necessarily win them over. After all, the fact that these voters supported Trump in the first place means they are likely more ideologically conservative than the typical Democratic voter.

The graph below shows how the 2016 Trump voters who are now unsure of how theyll vote in 2020 compare to the Trump base (those who already say theyll back him again in 2020), the Democratic base (Clinton voters who already plan to vote for the Democrat in November), and Trump voters who have already decided to vote for the Democrat.

On several issues, the persuadable Trump voters do appear to have views that fit well with the Democratic agenda. For example, about two-thirds of persuadable Trump voters want a ban on discrimination based on sexual identity and oppose Trumps decision to leave the Paris climate agreement, putting them at odds with the voters in Trumps base.

On health care, persuadable Trump voters are to the left of Trumps base but less liberal than some of the most progressive Democrats in the field. Fewer than half support Sen. Bernie Sanderss single-payer Medicare-for-all approach, which would ban private health insurance, but more than 70 percent support a public option for health insurance that would still allow people the option to keep their private insurance.

On immigration, persuadable Trump voters appear to support the trade-off that used to be the base of comprehensive immigration reform proposals: increasing border security while giving undocumented immigrants already in the US a path to citizenship.

Breaking with Trumps dedicated voters, this group overwhelmingly supports granting legal status to undocumented immigrants who have held jobs and paid taxes for at least three years. But theyre closer to the viewpoint of the Trump base when it comes to border security, with just 13 percent opposing an increase in the number of patrols on the US-Mexico border. A slight majority 55 percent of the Democratic base would oppose increasing border security.

Finally, the persuadable Trump voters are not quite as convinced as the Democratic base when it comes to increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour. While this policy is supported by the vast majority of core Democratic voters, only about 50 percent of the persuadable Trump voters are on board.

Of course, the 2020 election can turn on any number of factors, including the likability of the candidates, the potential impact (economic or otherwise) of the coronavirus, and how these persuadable voters evaluate Trumps first term. But to maximize their chances of winning over the persuadable Trump voters, Democrats should focus on issues that appeal to their base like climate change and LGBTQ rights, while favoring more moderate solutions on issues like health care and immigration.

There may be other paths to defeating Trump, including mobilizing progressives who dont usually vote. But if the strategy is to win over persuadable Trump voters, then a moderate nominee like Joe Biden likely has a better chance at appealing to this small but pivotal group who are not only important in 2020 but will also shape election outcomes for many years to come.

Brian Schaffner is the Newhouse Professor of Civic Studies at Tufts University. Laurel Bliss is a research associate at Tufts.

More here:
Swing voters could sway the 2020 election - Vox.com

Published Mar 12, 2020 at 8:00 am(Updated Mar 12, 2020 at 7:59 am)

Meeting place: There will be a meeting at the town hall tonight about immigration legislation (File photograph)

A town hall meeting will take place today to discuss new immigration legislation tabled in the House of Assembly.

People are invited to CedarBridge Academy for the meeting about amendments to the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Act.

National security minister Wayne Caines said the proposed intentions of the Bill would be detailed line by line, page by page.

The legislation, tabled by Mr Caines last Friday and scheduled for debate tomorrow, aims to solve the problems of mixed-status families and settle the status of children born overseas to Bermudian parents.

Further reform is planned that will also affect permanent residents certificates and Bermudian status, belongers, such as naturalised British Overseas Territories citizens and the spouses of Bermudians, and the status of job-makers.

Mr Caines told the House last Friday that the Government was committed to ensuring comprehensive immigration reform.

He said that progress requires time, resources, collaboration with stakeholders and strong leadership on this issue.

The meeting takes place in the schools cafeteria from 6pm to 8pm

Originally posted here:
Town hall meeting on immigration Bill - Royal Gazette

A large majority of Hispanic voters in battleground districts are "almost certain" to turn out to vote in November, according to research conducted for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus's (CHC) campaign arm, Bold PAC.

According to the research, 78 percent of Hispanic registered voters are "almost certain" to vote and 48 percent are "extremely enthusiastic."Pollstersalso noted that "with an average enthusiasm rating of 7.83 out of 10, there are still opportunities to further generate voter enthusiasm."

Latino Decisions polled Hispanic registered voters in battleground districts in Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Texasand presented its finding in an internal memo reviewed by The Hill.

The stakes of Novembers elections are high and we are not taking anything or anyone for granted. Thats why the DCCC is building on our partnership with BOLD PAC to make aggressive investments to engage and earn the support of Latino voters in communities across the country, said DCCC Chairwoman Cheri BustosCheryl (Cheri) Lea BustosAnnual Congressional Dinner pushed back to June amid coronavirus concerns Internal Democratic research shows Hispanics energized to vote in November McCarthy blasts Democrats' campaign arm for ads against Republicans on coronavirus response MORE (Ill.) in a statement.

The memo shows Hispanic voters in those battleground districts are responsive to issues that Democrats traditionally emphasize, particularly health care.

Affordable, quality health care has consistently polled as a top issue for Hispanic voters.

According to the memo, "health care is the single most mobilizing message" for Latinos, who said they are equally likely to favor expansion of the Affordable Care Act or creating new plans to expand coverage.

And 65 percent of Hispanic voters see President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump faces toughest crisis of presidency in coronavirus House passes bill to help prop up economy from coronavirus White House physician: Trump doesn't require test after exposure to 2 people with coronavirus MORE's tax cuts as having mainly benefited the wealthy and corporations, according to the research, somewhat undercuttinghis economic message toward Latinos.

In 2018, Democrats overwhelmingly won Hispanic voters with record midterm turnout, in part by painting the 2017 tax cuts as benefiting only the rich.In that election, Democrats also promoted the message that Republicans are "hostile" toward Latinos, citing the administration's policies and rhetoric on immigration.

We cannot expect people to turn out if we do not put in the time to listen to them and address their top priorities. Our research investments will ensure that Latino voters are both heard and reflected in our strategy to protect and expand the most diverse House Majority in our nations history, said Bustos.

That message is likely to resonate again in 2020, according to the memo, which says "the Washington Republican brand is badly damaged in the eyes of Latino voters," but cautions there is still space for Democrats to actively engage Latino voters.

Rep. Veronica EscobarVeronica EscobarInternal Democratic research shows Hispanics energized to vote in November Trump to deploy 160 troops to border following court rulings Polls show big bounce to Biden ahead of Super Tuesday MORE (D-Texas) applauded the report, saying that investments in Hispanic voter research could help Democrats hold on to their House majority.

The road to ensuring we protect and expand our House majority will run through Latino voters and we must give them a reason to vote for us. Democrats presence on the ground is helping bolster the important work of a number of grassroots organizations and leaders who have long been engaging with the Latino community. This investment is vital to changing the electorate and flipping swing districts in Texas and across the country, said Escobar, who represents the freshman class in leadership.

The report found Trump's approval ratings among Latinos vary geographically, but overall 65 percent of Hispanics disapprove of the president while 35 percent approve. Among Nevada Hispanic voters, for example, Trump scored better with only a 56 percent disapproval rate, while that rate is 63 percent in Texas and 73 percent in Arizona.

The research also found that Latino voters are open to multiple messages on immigration reform, including a comprehensive immigration reform package.

The road to retaining and expanding our Democratic majority runs through the Latino community. Thats why CHC Bold PAC is proud to once again partner with the DCCC to conduct critical research on our nation's growing and diverse Latino community in key battleground states like Florida, Arizona, and Texas, saidBold PAC Chairman Rep. Tony Crdenas (D-Calif).

By making these investments on Latino voters early, Democrats are taking important steps to mobilize Latinos across the country and get them to the polls this November, he added.

The memo concluded that Democrats should focus on health care, immigration and the economy to keep Hispanic voters incentivized to vote.

"To generate further enthusiasm from Latino voters, candidates must be relatable to the working class, culturally competent, and use their presence to show Latinos that they care about the community," reads the memo.

Latino Decisions is a Democratic polling firm that specializes in researching Hispanic voter intent. The firm recently conducted polls that accurately predicted record Hispanic turnout in early primary and caucus states.

Visit link:
Internal Democratic research shows Hispanics energized to vote in November | TheHill - The Hill