At Rancho High School in Las Vegas, Hillary made clear her determination to effect immigration reform and a path to citizenship for Dreamers and, importantly, their families.
This event is a perfect example of Hillary’s early campaign strategy. Rather than doing the speaking, Hillary is hearing the stories these Dreamers have to tell. For those who still do not get it, statements from her will not proliferate right now. She is busy doing the listening.
It’s time to fix our broken immigration system. Read Hillary’s remarks in Nevada earlier: http://hrc.io/1ck46Or
“You are the kind of student that every family & every community should be proud of.”—Hillary to Rancho HS student & DACA recipient Betsaida
“There’s much more to do to expand protections for families & communities … & keep building support for comprehensive reform.”
“We should put in place an accessible way for parents of DREAMers & others to be eligible for the same deferred action as their children.”
“I will fight to stop partisan attacks on the executive actions that would put DREAMers—including many with us today—at risk of deportation”
“I will fight for comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for you and for your families across our country.”
No GOP candidate has consistently supported a path to citizenship. When they talk about “legal status,” that’s code for “2nd class status.”
“We can’t wait any longer for a path to full and equal citizenship.”
“We have to once and for all fix our broken immigration system. This is a family issue.”
Hillary Clinton conversa sobre la reforma migratoria con un grupo de
#DREAMers en Nevada. Sintoniza aquí: http://hrc.io/1ACe9nfHillary Clinton: I will fight for comprehensive immigration reform
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
At a roundtable discussion at Rancho High School in North Las Vegas, Nevada, Hillary Clinton had a conversation with DREAMers about her commitment to fighting for them and their families—and to passing comprehensive immigration reform once and for all.
It is wonderful to be back in Nevada and at Rancho. I am delighted to be joined by a number of young people who are going to talk with me, and all of you, about their lives and their stories, particularly immigration. I want to acknowledge my friend and Congresswoman Dina Titus for being here, thank you. And it is Cinco De Mayo, so it’s an especially appropriate day to be having this conversation.
I want to begin by thanking everyone at Rancho High School for hosting us today. I am looking forward to hearing from each of our panel participants. I have wonderful memories from my time here in Nevada. I have gone door to door meeting with families not far from this school. I’ve met with a lot of culinary workers and other workers who keep the economy going strong. I accompanied a registered nurse on her 12-hour shift at St. Rose Dominican Hospital and then was very pleased to go back to her home and have dinner with her kids.
I know how hard hit Nevadans were by the Great Recession. This state in particular suffered some very tough blows. There was a much higher than average foreclosure rate, for example. A lot of people lost their jobs or their hours were cut dramatically, which made it more difficult for them to continue to make a good living.
We now see that this state is coming back from these tough economic times. Families have found a lot of different ways to make it work for them. We also saw people once again starting businesses, thinking about sending their kids to college, maybe doing some of those home repairs, maybe putting a little aside for retirement. But we’re not yet back on our feet.
We have certainly climbed out of the hole we were in, but now we have to do more than get by, we have to get ahead and stay ahead. And there are a lot of ways that we have to think about how we do that together. I think that it’s important to recognize that even with all the hard work and sacrifice that so many families made. In many ways, the deck is still stacked for those at the top. And I’m well aware that in Las Vegas, there’s nothing worse than a stacked deck. I want to reshuffle the deck.
I want to be a champion for hardworking Americans, I want to work across party lines, I want to work with the public and private sector, I want people to get back to the good old-fashioned American style of problem solving and setting us back on the right course.
Now to help reshuffle the deck, people have to do their part, they have to step up and take education seriously, they have to be willing to work hard.
My father was a small-business man, and when I say that, he was a really small-business man. A couple day workers, my mom, my brothers, and I. But he understood that hard work was the way forward in the United States, and he made a good living, and I will forever be grateful for that.
Because when families are strong, America is strong, and I am convinced having fought for families going all the way back to my days in law school and ever since, there is nothing is more important.
Now in this campaign I think we have to wage and win four big fights. One is to build the economy of tomorrow, and not yesterday, and that means we have to be really focused on what is going to help prepare young people, and we have to start early. Education is the key, but education in the first years of life is essential because now we know that brain development has formed really by the time a child is three or four.
So we have to do more to make sure that every single child has the best chance to do well in school, to get ahead, to chart his or her own future, to live up to his or her own God-given potential. It is also essential that we strengthen families and communities and that means that we have to finally and once and for all fix our immigration system—this is a family issue, its an economic issue too, but it is at heart a family issue. If we claim we are for family, then we have to pull together and resolve the outstanding issues around our broken immigration system.
The American people support comprehensive immigration reform not just because it’s the right thing to do—and it is—but because it will strengthen families, strengthen our economy, and strengthen our country. That’s why we can’t wait any longer, we can’t wait any longer for a path to full and equal citizenship.
Now, this is where I differ with everybody on the Republican side. Make no mistake: Today not a single Republican candidate, announced or potential, is clearly and consistently supporting a path to citizenship. Not one. When they talk about “legal status,” that’s code for “second-class status.”
And we should never forget that this debate is about people who, and you’re going to meet some of them in a second, people who work hard, who love this country, who pay taxes to it and want nothing more than to build better lives for themselves and their children.
We’re talking about the young people here at this table. They’re DREAMers in much more than name. They are kids that any parent would be proud of. I don’t understand how anyone could look at these kids and think we should break up more families or turn away more hard workers with talent.
So I will fight for comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for you and for families across our country. I will fight to stop partisan attacks on the executive actions that would put DREAMers—including many with us today—at risk of deportation.
And, if Congress refuses to act, as President I will do everything possible under the law to go even further. There are more people—like many parents of DREAMers and others with deep ties and contributions to our communities—who deserve a chance to stay. I’ll fight for them too.
The law currently allows for sympathetic cases to be reviewed, but right now most of these cases have no way to get a real hearing. Therefore we should put in place a simple, straightforward, and accessible way for parents of DREAMers and others with a history of service and contribution to their communities to make their case and be eligible for the same deferred action as their children.
But that’s just the beginning. There’s much more to do to expand and enhance protections for families and communities. To reform immigration enforcement and detention practices so they’re more humane, more targeted, and more effective. And to keep building the pressure and support for comprehensive reform.
On a personal basis, the first time I ever met anyone who was in our country and working I was about 12 years old, as I recall, and through my church was recruited along with some of the other girls in my Sunday school class to serve as babysitters on Saturday for the small children so that the older children could join their parents in the fields. Because, believe it or not, when I was growing up in Chicago, it was farm fields as far as the eye can see. The immigrant workers would come up through Texas, up through the Midwest, up to Chicago, and then through Michigan, and we were asked to help out.
And I remember going out to the camp where the families lived and taking care of the little kids while kids my age were our doing really hard work.
And what stuck in my mind was how at the end of the day, there was a long road at the end of the camp that went out to a dirt road in the middle of the field.
And the bus that had the workers from the field on it that came back in around 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon, stopped and let the workers off and all these little kids started running down that path to go see their parents and were scooped up by these really really tired people.
And I watched this and just thought, they’re just like me and my brothers when my dad comes home from work and we go out there to see him when he comes back from his day of doing what he has to do to support us. I’ve never gotten that experience or that image out of my mind.
And so for me this is about what kind of people we all are and what kind of country we all have. I am absolutely convinced this is in our economic interest, in the interest of our values, and it’s even in the interest of our long-term security as a nation.
So you know where I stand and there can be no question about it because I will do everything I can as President and during this campaign to make this case.
Now I know there are people who disagree with me, and I want them to have a conversation with me.
The facts are really clear, we know how much people who are working hard contribute to our economy both in what they buy and what they pay in taxes. In fact, in New York, which I know a little bit about because I represented it for eight years and I live there now, our undocumented workers in New York pay more in taxes that some of the biggest corporations in New York. So I’m ready to have this conversation with anyone anywhere.
And now let me turn to those who are living this story I want you to meet them and to talk with them.
Friend —
When we talk about immigration reform, we can’t forget who this debate is about: people who work hard, love this country, and dream of nothing more than building a future here for themselves and their families.
I want to help them fulfill their dreams.
That’s why last night in Las Vegas, I talked with a group of DREAMers — Americans in every way but citizenship papers, who have big plans to go to college, open small businesses, become doctors, start families — and I committed to fight for comprehensive immigration reform.
We should stop pretending we are going to deport 11 million people. We can no longer treat millions of Americans as second class citizens.
I’m ready to do what it takes to fix our broken immigration system. Fight for this with me — add your name right now:
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/immigration-reform/The amazing people I sat with last night — Erika, Betsaida, Blanca, Rafael, Juan, Victoria, and Astrid — are a reminder that there are real people and real families behind this issue. But it’s not just about their families. It’s about all of us.
I hope you’ll stand with me.
Hillary
It didn’t occur to me till last night that she timed that discussion for Cinco Dr Mayo. She is listening and she has listened for a very long time but she also says so much with just a few words.
A few tweets, a few conversations, a speech on criminal justice – each giving indications that although she will be virtually unopposed (no candidate of her caliber exists) she will not be playing it safe. Bold and fresh ideas will follow.
I am excited but patient.
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In the fourth picture she is making the hand sign for a double shot of Tequila.
Wink, wink.
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I got the Cinco de Mayo connection but didn’t know about that hand signal.
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Still, I was joking. I put “wink wink” on the bottom of the comment. But it wouldn’t surprise me if she had a shot or two, to take the edge off. 🙂
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On way to work, just heard report on this event on NPR. They focused on the young man who has started his own pool cleaning business and is so concerned because his family could still be deported. At the end of the report, the correspondent said Hillary has changed her position and GOP is accusing her of pandering. She has moved in this direction because GOP Congress refuses to act to bring people out of the shadows. And they are the ones who pander to their anti-immigration base. As president, Hillary makes clear, the status quo will be unacceptable.
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I hope someone tells those Rs tha she Co-Sponsored the Dream Act when she was in the Senate. And that is who she is – not a pander. She was left of Bill, left of Obama and is so close to Warren and Sanders – without going overboard, that they will have little to say as differences in debates with the left. The GOP moved right, she stayed right where she always was – to the left of center.
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Not only did she Co-Sponsor it, she did so three times. That I didn’t know that I just looked up her record on Immigration and it says she co-sponsored it in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
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Left this part out by accident:
” As a candidate for Senate, Hillary Clinton called for passage of legislation so that “All immigrants on the verge of gaining residency status should not be forced to leave this country while they wait for the INS to process their application.” The LIFE Act and LIFE Act Amendments, enacted in December 2000, allowed certain eligible immigrants until April, 2001 to apply for permanent residency without being forced to leave the United States first. As a Senator, Hillary urged those eligible to apply for the program and she cosponsored legislation to extend it until April, 2002.”
Sounds to me as if she is pretty consistent over more than 15 years.
Let Jeb and Rubio claim they are best for Hispanic voters. We know who would really have their backs. And don’t you just love that Rubio would reverse ties to Cuba that are being opened now as we speak – three ferry companies to open from Florida to Cuba for tourists. Mario wants to shut that whole thing down and hold on to ancient grudges. More Cubans are going to side with Hillary instead of the Cuban candidate, perhaps!
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Ah, but Rubio says Hillary is candidate of the past, apparently, because of her age. HE is the candidate of the past because all his.ideas are from both past, and he clearly wants to go backwards.
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Age is only skin deep. Rubio has a young brain that he doesn’t use much. He also has very old thoughts his parents told him and he never evolved. It pays to be older and wiser and more in tune with the world view of things.
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I will take a 67 year old with fresh, forward looking ideas to a 43 year old clinging to failed policies from the past any day. Trickle down, anyone?
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This is interesting about Hispanics – Hillary already has 71% support among them. Jeb, even with his fluency and Mexican wife only gets 26%.
Why would she pander? She already had them at Hello. They know her.
Also, and interesting statistics mess in Iowa. Jeb (who is wanted by TPTB) is running 7th in the polls. Walker (who will crash and burn when the rest of the country get to know him) is top dog in the Iowa polls. This is a great train wreck to watch in slo-mo.
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What is TPTB?
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The powers that be
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Thanks Rachel I did not know what TPTB was either.
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Still, I was at TNR (the new republic) reading something else and noticed an article on PUMAs from 2 weeks ago. The article has errors and was clearly written by somebody who spouts the obama lies, but the comments are pretty accurate – for better or worse – what happened to us. It is our history and some of the commenters were around for the whole rotten episode.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121584/hillary-clintons-pumas-once-die-hard-supporters-arent-sold-2016.
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Hmmmmm… Will has been silent this cycle, so it’s nice to know he is still out there. He is the one who recruited me into several groups. Thanks for sharing this, Karen.
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STILL, look at this:
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/iowa/release-detail?ReleaseID=2224
“One thing is obvious about Iowa Democratic Caucus participants: They are loyal as the day is long, at least when it comes to Hillary Clinton,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “The former secretary of state has taken a major pounding in the news media and from her political opponents over her e-mail and family foundation. So far these criticisms have had absolutely no effect on her standing among Iowa Democrats. “
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This doesn’t surprise me. Apparently the key in Iowa is to show up, and she did that and made her messages clear. Anyone who has been watching her since she began her public speaking in 2013 can piece together the beginning of a platform. People do know what she stands for, and the fact that she made the effort and went there first is bound to have an effect.
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I think all the attacks are having the opposite effect of what is intended. Even some.on the hard left are rallying behind her. The attacks seem to be consolidating her support, along with the fact she is.out there engaging with voters and articulating progressive policies. I have also seen comments about how if powerful, wealthy interests are that opposed to her, she’s probably right for the job.
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If her support is based on the level of her oppositon then she already won. That poor woman has had the worst of the worst thrown at her non-stop her whole life. And yes, BR, I sure as hell do admire her even more for standing her ground in the fact of brutal onslaught all the time.
Fox is already starting with the “angry, old, shrill, that face, hormones” don’t you just love Hannity Helmet Hair and company. That she is a woman doesn’t even occur to her suporters, it is not about how high her heels are.
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Reblogged this on franiel32.
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Thank you, franiel!
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