VivirLatino

Will the Presidential Candidates Heed the Sanctuary's Call?

17:07 H | Topics: Blogs - Immigration - Internet - US Presidential Race 2008

Sometimes you have to put politicians feet to the fire when it comes to being clear and real about an issue. The hot-button immigration issue, especially as it relates to the mythic Latino voting block has gotten lots of play by the presidential candidates. Recently both John McCain and Barack Obama played amigos to Latinos at the LULAC conference. This weekend they will certainly be all smiles and bad Spanish as they speak at the NCLR conference. But the Latino blogosphere and pro-migrant blogosphere wants more than sound bites, which is why the founding editors of The Sanctuary have put together a detailed questionnaire focusing on issues surrounding immigration. This was distributed to the 2008 presidential candidates over two weeks ago.

The Obama camp says a response is forthcoming and the McCain camp has stayed quiet but with election day coming closer and plenty of opportunities to play up the Latino vote until then, The Sanctuary had to put the candidates' feet to the fire. So the questionnaire was resent, requesting a response by a specific date.

Now is the time for the presidential wannabes to step up to the plate and put some depth beyond the rhetoric. Let's see if si se puede.

Edited to add that this is a joint effort of concerned pro-immigrant bloggers. Among them are:

Problem Chylde
Cross Left
Latina Lista
Zuky
Latino Politico
The Unapologetic Mexican
Xicano Power

Read the entire questionnaire after the jump

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?

Image Via / The Sanctuary

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