The Sanctuary's Questionnaire for Presidential Candidates

The founding editors of The Sanctuary have put together a detailed questionnaire focusing on issues surrounding immigration, which we are distributing to the 2008 presidential candidates. [ Image: Sanctuary poster by Nezua, of course.]

We sent the questionnaire to the Obama and McCain campaigns a little over two weeks ago. Since we hadn't heard back from either of them, yesterday we publicized the survey on a major Latin@ email list which gets read by all sorts of Beltway mucky-mucks. The Obama campaign promptly got in touch with us and reassured us that our survey is not being ignored; they are working on it along with the hundreds of other such requests they receive. O the woes of making it a mainstay of your campaign sloganeering that "change comes not from the top down, but from the bottom up!" Come on, Barry, show us some change we can believe in!

Meanwhile, no word from the McCain camp.

Obviously, both Obama and McCain have in recent weeks been increasing the volume of their bleating noises about reaching out to Latin@ voters; but it's not enough to chant "Sí se puede" or visit the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Many Latin@ communities are currently under virulent attack by a lethal wave of reactionary scapegoating and hatemongering, institutionalized intimidation, repression, and violence, and thumb-twiddling liberal indifference. The questions in The Sanctuary's survey express many desperately urgent concerns, and any unwillingness by any candidate to offer unambiguous answers to these questions speaks volumes about the chasm between rhetorical posturing and actual policy positions. As Marisa Treviño writes at Latina Lista in her own post about this survey:

Depending on the source, recent headlines have touted Obama and McCain of either "pandering" for the Latino vote or "courting" it.

Given that both men have been or will be appearing at national Latino or Latino-participant events (NALEO, LULAC, NCLR, UNITY 08), it's obvious they both want to be seen as supporting Latino causes.

But do they really? Do they dare to make their true stands on the issues known before November 4, 2008?

Each claims that he has but while speeches touch on issues of interest to Latinos, in true political style, the issues are acknowledged but not explored. Talk with no substance.

Of course, we are also reaching out to Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney (who has just named Rosa Clemente as her running mate) and other third-party campaigns, though we're still in the early stages of these efforts and have nothing to report yet. As readers here probably know, I'm a fervent advocate of third-party politics, because I believe that the two-party Coke-Pepsi lockdown on US politics is one of the biggest obstacles to progressive change in this country and the world. Most of the great victories in US social justice history — from the abolition of slavery to suffrage for women to the union movement — have depended upon third parties. There is absolutely no reason to believe that future social justice victories can be achieved without similar pressure. The status quo never changes out of the goodness of incumbents' hearts; the establishment succumbs to change only when it is the least costly option.

So I'll keep this post updated with additional posts on this matter from my colleagues at The Sanctuary, as well as with any further developments in our communications with the campaigns. And you're invited to help us raise a stink about it as well! Let's make some noise, friends! That's what these intertubes are for.

UPDATE 1: A post on this matter has gone up at The Sanctuary, as well as one from Man Eegee at Latino Politico.

UPDATE 2: More from Maegan at Vivir Latino, Sylvia/M at Problem Chylde, and Nezua at The Unapologetic Mexican.

UPDATE 3: And Kety at CrossLeft. Now we're rollin!

UPDATE 4: Add Para Justicia y Libertad and Citizen Orange to the mix.

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The Sanctuary's Presidential Candidate Questionnaire

[ Please provide direct, detailed answers and explain how long you have held each position. ]

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?

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?

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

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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

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

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

12. Do you have a position on providing materials concerning health care and public benefits programs in languages other than English?

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?

14. What are your feelings on immigrant detention?

15. Do you support family detention centers?

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

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)?

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?

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?

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

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

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?

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?

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?

25. Do you support cancelling or renegotiating NAFTA?"

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

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

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

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

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?

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

32. Do you support canceling or renegotiating Plan Mexico?

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?

Comments

[nezua]

rock n roll hermano. its one thing to get up in front of those TV cams and quote worker's slogans, and its another to actually help those workers who are being treated as scum, being jailed, being torn from their now-extra-destitute families, being treated inhumanly and all as our system is making cashmoney from that treatment.

sí se puede, indeed.

[Meep]

This questionnaire looks great. I can't wait to see if the candidates respond, and how.

[Kai]

Nez, yeah it's like Maegan said, "Let's see if sí se puede."

Meep, thanks, I'm really curious to see what happens too!

[nezua]

right. jeje. perfect way to put it.