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The 2016Democratic presidential candidates say they support immigration reform, but some immigrants wonder if they can actually deliver.

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Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off in a sharp Democratic debate hosted by CNN. Here are the best attack moments from the candidates. VPC

Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, and Hillary Rodham Clinton laugh during the CNN Democratic presidential debate Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, in Las Vegas.(Photo: John Locher/Associated Press)

LAS VEGASThe leading 2016Democratic presidential candidates support the big picture of comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants in the United States, and support preserving or even expanding President Barack Obama's deferred-deportation programs.

The differences between Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, her main, liberal challenger Bernie Sanders and lesser-known rivals Martin O'Malley,Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb often are degrees,shades and subtleties, which might help explainwhy the topic didn't come up until more than an hour into their first debate on Tuesday night.

Unlike the Republican primary race, which has been characterized by calls for more border security and at-times harsh rhetoric aimed at Mexican immigrants, the Democrats sparred over questions on the other side of the issue, such as whether guest-worker programs would exploit foreign labor andwhether "Obamacare" should be opened up to undocumented immigrants and their children.

O'Malley, a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor, has proposed doing so.

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Clinton agrees. "I want to open up the opportunity for immigrants to be able to buy into the exchanges under the Affordable Care Act," she said. "I think to go beyond that, as I understand what Governor O'Malley has recommended, so that they would get the same subsidies ... it would be very difficult to administer" at least without comprehensive immigration reform, which Congress has tried and failed to pass for a decade.

But members of the influential andmajority-Hispanic Culinary Unionwatching the debate wanted to hear more from the candidates: How would they succeed in persuading Congress to enact far-reaching immigration reformswhenObama has failed?

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O'Malley said immigration reform has been gridlocked because of "old thinking" he heard from other candidates on the stage namely Clinton.O'Malley has emerged asan outspoken champion of immigrants, particularly the unaccompanied minors from Central America who surged across the border in 2014. As governor, O'Malley signed Maryland's version of the Dream Act.

"I would go further than President Obama has on DACA and DAPA," O'Malley said, referring to the deferred-action on deportation programs that Obama created using executive action. "We are a nation of immigrants. We are made stronger by immigrants. ... I am for a generous, compassionate America that says we're all in this together."

Those programs have been blockedby legal action by Texas and two dozen other states, including Arizona.

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The Democratic candidates shared the stage in a two-hour debate hosted by CNN and Facebook at the Wynn Las Vegas resort and casinoon the Las Vegas Strip.

The debate's location was significant: not only is Nevada an influential early state in the nomination process, it is a considered a swing-state battleground for the general election. And immigration issues loom large over the hospitality industry that is crucial to the Las Vegas economy, and because Nevada proportionately has one of the largest undocumented populations.

At the headquarters of the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226,about 200 members watched the debate on two large screen TVs in the unions main hall in the shadow of the Stratosphere Casino, just north of The Strip. The union isan influential force in Democratic politics, and thelocal has55,000 members, 56 percent of them Latinos, and many of them immigrants. The members represent 95 percent of casino workers on the strip and downtown. Theywork as housekeepers, cooks, bartenders, food servers andbell men.

Some Latino union members who attended the watch party were glad to hear the Democratic candidates say they support comprehensive immigration reforms that include a pathway to citizenship, which clashed with the positions on immigration taken by Republicans candidates.

Butsome Latino union members remained skeptical. They pointed out that Obama also promised to deliver comprehensive immigration reform when he ran for office but failed to deliver.

Culinary workers watch the debate

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Its exactly what we want to hear, but thats all it is right now. Weve heard this before with the last time we were supporting President Obama, said Efrain Becerra, 38, who works in room service at Harrahs Casino.

Becerra, an immigrant from Mexico and a legal resident of the U.S., said he was disappointed that none of the candidates offered any concrete steps on how they would get Congress to pass immigration reform, which will take support from both Republicans and Democrats.

I was hoping at least one of them to break off and say this is how we are going to get there, Becerra said. We want to see if anyone has an action plan. That is really what we are looking for. We dont want to hear them say we support immigration reform. I want to hear them say how you think we are going to get to one. And that hasnt happened yet.

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Miguel Martinez, 54, a casino porter at the Bellagio, agreed.

They say a lot of things, but right now these are just words, said Martinez, an immigrant from Mexico who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen.

However,Francisco Rufino Parra, 39, a cook at the Paris Hotel, said he knows candidates make promises they dont keep, but he believes they are sincere this time after Democrats took a beating in the 2014 mid-term elections.

I really think that this time they really think that this issue needs to be dealt with because of what happened last time. It didnt get dealt with and nobody got out and voted. So it hurts them, Rufino Parra said.

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The Democratic field's support of immigration reform gives voters a sharp contrast with the Republicans, whose front-runner, celebrity billionaire Donald Trump, has called Mexican immigrants "rapists" and drug-runners and has vowed to construct a border wall at Mexico's expense and try to undo the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants who are born on U.S. soil.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, one of 15 Republicans still in the GOP race, at one point tweeted: "The Democrat plan: Give amnesty AND#ObamaCareto illegal immigrants.#DemDebate"

Clinton, the party's front-runner who lost the 2008 nomination to Obama, this year has embraced the immigration issue in a big way.

Earlier this year, in appearances in North Las Vegas and in Las Vegas, Clinton vowed to push for comprehensive reform that includes"a real path to citizenship" for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants who have settled in the United States. And if Capitol Hill failed to cooperate, she would use her executive powers as president to go even further than Obama in shielding millions of immigrants from deportation.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont, backs a pathway to citizenship and supported versions of the Dream Act, which would have benefited young immigrants brought to the United States as children,diverges from comprehensiveimmigration reform over the issue of guest or temporary foreign workers.

Sandersopposed a 2007 bipartisan comprehensive immigration co-authored by then-U.S. Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and he was asked about it at the debate.

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"I voted against that piece of legislation because it had guest-worker provisions in it, which the Southern Poverty Law Center talked about being semi-slavery," Sanders said. "Guest workers are coming, they're working under terrible conditions, but if they stand up for their rights, they're thrown out of the country. I wasnot the the only progressive to vote against that legislation for that reason."

Despite reservations about a continuing flow of foreign workers, Sanders in 2013 ultimately voted for the so-called "Gang of Eight" bipartisan immigration bill, which was ignored by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and never became law.

"My deal right now, and always has been, is that when you have 11 million undocumented people in this country, we need comprehensive immigration reform," Sanders said. "We need a path toward citizenship. We need to take people out of the shadows."

Chafee was a liberal Republican while representing Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate; he also voted in 2006 for a major immigration-reform bill and against the Secure Fence Act. He was elected Rhode Island governor as an independent, and his administration was marked by immigrant friendly policies.

Fifth candidate Jim Webb, a conservative Democrat and former Secretary of the Navy,is more of an exception; as a U.S. senator from Virginia, he also opposed the Kyl-Kennedycomprehensive billand generally did not have what reform advocates considera pro-immigrant record.

Asked about opening up "Obamacare" to undocumented immigrants, Webb said, "I wouldn't have a problem with that."

During the debate, Webb also brought up an unsuccessfulamendment he offered during the 2007 immigration-reform deliberations that would have given a pathway to citizenship to people who have "put down their roots" and met a series of standards. However, reform backers have saidWebb's amendment was not pro-immigrant andactually would have dramatically curtailed the number of immigrants who could have gotten legalization.

"We need a comprehensive reform and we need to be able to define our borders," Webb said.

Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota, said jobs, health care, and education are the most important issues for Latino voters. But immigration is a gateway issue because many have mixed families families where some members are U.S. citizens and others are undocumented immigrants.

Therefore, many Latinos want to hear candidates views on immigration before they are ready to listen to their views on other key issues, he said.

The issue of immigration is one of respect and trust, he said.

Monterroso said Latino voters want to first hear how candidates treat the issue of immigration and then how they plan to address the undocumented immigrants in the country.

The nonpartisan Mi Famila Vota is backed by the Service Employees International Union and works to increase the number of Latino voters in the U.S.

He said Latinos hold the key to the White House because they have the power to swing three crucial states, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Earlier in the day, Mi Familia Vota workers stood outside Marianas Supermarket in southeast Las Vegaswith clipboard asking shoppers if they were registered to vote.

The organizations goal is to register 80,000 to 90,000 new Latino voters by 2016 in six states:Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Texas. The goal is part of a national push to turn out 15 million Latino voters in 2016, up from about 12 million in 2012.

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CNN Democratic presidential debate: Candidates promise ...

Cristina Martinez arrives at work at 4 a.m., ties a white apron high across her chest, and starts preparing a lamb cooked in vapor for 10 hours.

An hour later, she and her husband, Ben Miller, open their South Philadelphia restaurant, Barbacoa, serving premium tacos - and hefty sides of activism - in their bid to mobilize restaurateurs on behalf of the many undocumented immigrants who work in America's kitchens.

Hosting organizational meetings and screening documentaries, the couple hope to spark a culinary crusade in a city famous for its restaurant scene - and pressure the deadlocked Congress to overhaul the immigration laws.

"Mexican undocumented workers are in every restaurant in this country," Miller wrote in one online post. "They cook, clean, and busboy for Marc Vetri, Steven Starr, Jose Garces, every hotel, every university dining hall, and in our restaurant . . . as well."

It's no secret that immigrants, many of them undocumented, are essential to America's $550-billion-a-year restaurant trade. The Pew Hispanic Center has estimated that 20 percent of the nation's 2.6 million chefs, head cooks, and line cooks are here illegally, as are 28 percent of the 360,000 dishwashers.

"All I want," Miller said in an interview, "is for some chefs to step up and say, 'Yes, we are in favor of making a way for our undocumented workers. They matter.' "

The Philadelphia-area restaurant all-stars who Miller has called out on Facebook have thus far stayed silent. A spokeswoman for Garces said he declined to comment. Neither Vetri nor Starr responded to multiple interview requests.

But others said Miller's message begs an important conversation.

David Suro, a native of Mexico who opened the Center City restaurant Tequilas 29 years ago, estimated the city's commercial kitchens and dining rooms employ at least 1,500 Mexican immigrants as cooks, servers, busboys, and dishwashers. He said his policy is in line with what he believes is true of the other major restaurant employers: "Anyone hired must have papers."

Proper papers?

That's not always so easily determined, Suro said, acknowledging the possibility of forgeries. "But they pay their taxes" through payroll withholding, he said, "and are very hardworking."

Tom McCusker, chef-owner of Honest Tom's Tacos in West Philadelphia, supports Miller as someone who "kind of broke the barrier to talk openly about this."

But he said Miller needs big-name support if his cause is to get lift. "If one of those dudes signed off," he said, "we could run with this."

What Miller, 31, has in mind is a movement built on the testimonials of prominent chefs who might be more comfortable talking about a sensitive subject if they tackle it together. He wants the federal government to create restaurant guest-worker permits so workers can "travel home for five days at Christmas," or attend family funerals, without fear of arrest. He wants recognition that anyone who dines out benefits from the labor of immigrants, many of whom are undocumented.

A quirky, unlikely standard bearer - who said he lived in shelters for a while and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor indecent assault charge a decade ago - Miller said his knowledge of the restaurant scene comes from having worked at two prominent Philadelphia eateries alongside people he knew to be undocumented but otherwise upstanding.

"While they are here, they are paying taxes," he said. "They are consumers, shopping at the Acme, willing to do the [low-level kitchen] jobs . . . that kids who come out of culinary school don't want to do."

His desire to use Barbacoa as a platform for social change, he said, is driven largely by his love for Martinez. They met working at another restaurant, and married in 2012.

She was a 6-year-old in Mexico, she said, when her mother and father taught her to cook the succulent barbecue they sold at open-air markets.

Forty-six and moonfaced, with black hair in a tight bun now, she moves by rote in Barbacoa's kitchen, where her thoughts often turn to her daughter, Karla, 23, a nursing student in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

Martinez said she came illegally to the United States in 2009 to earn money for Karla's tuition and expenses, about $2,000 monthly, which was unattainable as a barbacoa peddler in Mexico.

Then a single mother of four, she had made the perilous trek across the desert to the U.S. before and knew the drill: a bit of peyote to battle fatigue; a plastic bottle to scrounge water from cow troughs; the clothes on her back.

Caught by U.S. Border Patrol and fingerprinted in 2006, Martinez has an "unlawful presence" on her record, which makes her ineligible for a green card despite her marriage to Miller, a U.S. citizen, who was raised in Easton, Pa.

Among the hardships of being undocumented, she said, the hardest is being unable to go home to see her family and return to Philadelphia without another desert crossing and at least $8,000 to pay the human smugglers. She could leave and try to return legally but the law bars people with her immigration status from applying for 10 years.

So the couple behind Barbacoa, which began as a lunch cart near their home on South Eighth Street, and opened as a storefront on South 11th in July, saw no alternative but to add movement-building to their menu.

On Sept. 20, with 25 people in attendance, they screened the documentary The Hand That Feeds, about working conditions at a New York City sandwich shop. A meeting to discuss an unspecified "direct action" campaign to take effect in the spring is scheduled for Nov. 8.

Miller imagines a "show of solidarity" in which restaurant owners would close for a day and issue a joint statement to raise consciousness about the needs of the industry's workforce.

The National Restaurant Association, the country's largest restaurant industry group, has lobbied Congress for immigration reform, including "a path to legalization" for undocumented immigrants. The industry has a lot of power, Miller said.

"Of course, it's a personal story, with my wife and me," he said. "But it is also about our customers and colleagues in food service. We want these people to have stability and comfort."

He said he's not advocating just opening the borders. But he wants debate.

"Donald Trump has his podium. He has his microphone," Miller said. "We can't let that be the only one."

There is some precedent for prominent people, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking out on immigration. "Our businesses broke the law by employing them," he told Congress in 2006. "[But] our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported."

Speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week, Washington, D.C.-based restaurateur Jose Andres, who recently backed out of a deal to open a restaurant in a Trump hotel after Trump disparaged Mexicans and called for mass deportations, echoed the sentiment. "Who is going to be feeding America," said Andres, "if we kick [out] everybody that is feeding America?"

For Barbacoa, immigration reform is about human rights and skin in the game at every level.

"I'm not saying anything that controversial," Miller said. "I just don't want it to be an option for a chef to look the other way."

mmatza@phillynews.com

215-854-2541@MichaelMatza1

Go here to see the original:
South Philly chef's special: immigration reform

Texas may be the face of opposition to President Barack Obamas executive actions todelay the deportation of some undocumented immigrants, but not all leaders in the state agree. Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Judge Sarah Eckhardt of Travis County, where Austin is located, want the lawsuit that Texas and other states filed against the program dropped, according to the Texas Tribune.

I urge these state leaders to drop opposition to these federal programs because of the benefits they can provide to our local communities, Adler said Saturday while standing with undocumented immigrants at the nonprofit Workers Defense Project.

Adler said at the rally that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott should meet with immigrant families in the community. Such a meeting, he said, could help in understanding the harm brought on them by trying to block Obamas immigration reform efforts.

In 2014, Obama tried to implement the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, also known as DAPA, but Texas and 25 other states blocked Obamas efforts soon after. Abbott filled the lawsuit while he was state attorney general, the Texas Tribune reported.

Those who have filed the lawsuit are playing politics with peoples lives, Eckhardt said. Immigrants are integral to the economic success of the country, she added.

A federal judge in February blocked Obamas executive actions on immigration, saying his administration didnt allow for a longer notification and comment period as required, CNN reported. In May, a federal appeals court sided with Texas and the 25 other states challenging the order, saying that eligible undocumented immigrants cant apply for Obamas program while it is being appealed.

Protesters gathered outside Abbotts home in April, asking him to drop the lawsuit against DAPA and sit down to talk with families about immigration, according to KTRK-TV in Houston.

See the original post:
DAPA Immigration Reform 2015: Austin City Leaders Want ...

The first Latino to be the sheriff of a major city recently announced her re-election campaign with a bit of a twist: Her office would no longer by complying with a federal law that requires law enforcement agencies to hold arrested undocumented immigrants beyond the dates theyre to be released.

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez decided to change the policy for her department that was mandated by the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants arrested on minor charges for an additional two days, the Dallas Morning Newsreported. Hundreds of other jurisdictions in other states with heavy undocumented immigrant populations have already taken similar action, but Texas has come under scrutiny because itbordersCentral America, where the U.S. government has been deporting the immigrant group, according to a new report by the Guardian.

Valdez made the decision with her departments best interests at heart, she said, knowing that it may not make her more popular, especially during an election year. No matter what we do, someone is going to get upset, she told the Dallas Morning News.We cant base our decisions on who is going to get upset with us. We have to base our decisions on what is best for the whole.

There has been an increased emphasis on immigration in the U.S., especially as it pertains to next years presidential election. Current Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who has campaigned to Make America Great Again by ramping up rhetoric as it pertains to immigration, has famously saidof Mexicans: They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.

Trump last month visited Dallas, where he proclaimed, We are a dumping ground for the rest of the world, referring to the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. He has proposed to build a wall to keep immigrants from illegally entering the U.S.

The policy change in Dallas was based on the needs of Valdez's jurisdiction and not federal needs, shesaid. She would rather exercise discretion instead of being forced to comply with an ICE law that she says focuses more on committing civil or administrative violations instead of actual crimes.

Immigration is a federal law. I dont know why they keep expecting me to take care of federal issues, she said. We make our decisions based on reason, safety and whats best for the community.

Read the original here:
Immigration Reform In Texas: Undocumented Immigrants In ...

President Barack Obama promised Hispanic leaders on Thursday he'll continue to champion a comprehensive change to the nation's immigration laws and said America's greatness comes from building opportunities, not walls.

While prospects for an immigration overhaul are negligible during the remainder of his presidency, Obama used the speech to highlight differences with several of the Republican presidential candidates on the issue, which will help define the 2016 elections.

Obama said he wishes GOP lawmakers had followed the lead of former President George W. Bush when he sought changes that would have provided legal status and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He noted that Bush had said that uniting the country cannot be done by inciting people to anger.

"Think how much better our economy would be if the rest of his party got the message," Obama told about 2,000 people during an awards dinner for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, which seeks to open the halls of Congress to more Latinos.

Obama said he believes in changes in the law that would allow people here illegally to pay a fine, pay their fair share of taxes and then "go to the back of the line" before they earn citizenship. He contrasted that message to some GOP candidates calling for more walls on the U.S. border with Mexico.

"You can't just feed on fear," he said. "You should be feeding hope."

Obama used the speech to highlight gains he said Hispanics have made under his presidency, noting that 4 million more Latinos have health insurance and that the unemployment rate for the group has about fallen in half from 13 percent to about 6.4 percent.

Prior to Obama's arrival, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke briefly, saying that too many people in the U.S. don't see how vital Latinos are to the nation.

"It's a problem when a leading Republican candidate for president says that immigrants from Mexico are rapists and drug dealers," Clinton said, referencing comments that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump made last summer.

She said it was a problem when candidates "use offensive terms like 'anchor babies,'" a phrase that Republican Jeb Bush used to describe infants whose parents come to America specifically so their children are born in the U.S. and granted automatic citizenship. Bush has said he was referring mostly to the so-called birth tourism industry.

To that, Clinton said, "Basta. Enough. End this," using the Spanish term for "enough."

Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.

Link:
Obama Touts Immigration Reform in Speech to Hispanic ...