Sanctuary Press Release — Obama Answers Questionnaire, McCain Ducks

Yesterday the editorial crew at The Sanctuary sent out the following statement to its press list:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 4, 2008

OBAMA CAMPAIGN RESPONDS TO SURVEY ON IMMIGRATION REFORM/PUBLIC POLICY, MCCAIN CAMPAIGN SILENT
The Sanctuary responds to Obama's Co-operation and McCain's Silence

NEW YORK, NY – The Obama campaign has responded to The Sanctuary's comprehensive survey on Latino issues.  The McCain Campaign has remained silent.

In June, the editors of The Sanctuary sent both campaigns a survey on Latino issues. Since both candidates have been courting the Latino vote, the editors of The Sanctuary wanted the candidates to speak openly and honestly about their positions.

"We were tired of seeing the candidates tip-toe around the issues and merely pay lip service. So we created this questionnaire posing specific policy questions for the candidates to answer," said Sanctuary editor Edmundo Rocha of www.xicanopwr.com.

By the July 31st deadline, only the Obama campaign had responded to the survey.  The Sanctuary conducted extra follow-up with McCain's campaign headquarters via e-mail and telephone to investigate their failure to meet the deadline.

"The first phone call I placed was answered cordially.  I was told that someone would get back to me.  I never heard back from anyone," said Sanctuary editor Kety Esquivel of www.CrossLeft.org, who has appeared on CNN to discuss the questionnaire.  "The second time I called, the person I was speaking with hung up and the third time I called the line was disconnected."  

"It is clear to me that the McCain campaign is not interested in speaking to the issues,"  said Sanctuary editor Maegan Ortiz of www.VivirLatino.com. "We believe that they owe it not only to us to respond to the questionnaire, but to their base."

The Sanctuary has stated that it will give the McCain campaign until midnight, August 6, to respond to the survey. 

"If they don't respond at that point, we can only surmise that they do not take the Latino community seriously and are truly delivering nothing more than political pandering to get the Latino vote," said Sanctuary editor Manuel Guzmán of www.LatinoPolitico.com.

At a time when our communities are under siege with unduly harsh immigration enforcement measures, our young people are dropping out of high school and getting pregnant at higher rates, the schools that predominantly service our children are in a state of decline, healthcare is out of financial reach and racial profiling across the country is at its worst, the writers of the Sanctuary, along with the rest of the Latino community, deserve more than empty political promises or being ignored by a campaign that says it wants the Latino vote but doesn't want to give them the time of day.

The Sanctuary is a grassroots effort of pro-migrant, human rights, civil rights bloggers and on-line activists dedicated to the enactment of meaningful immigration reform that is practical, fair and most of all humane.

We're also still working on obtaining responses from the McKinney campaign and other third party candidates. We're being a bit more patient on that front because obviously third parties aren't gonna have the kinds of resources that Obama and McCain have to throw at these things; but our patience is limited too, and we won't give them a pass forever. Personally I'm very much looking forward to seeing how McKinney's positions match up against Obama's, but if she fails to respond to our questionnaire, we'll never know and I suspect that many of us will be sorely disappointed.

We have not yet posted Obama's responses to the questionnaire because we're still waiting another couple days to see what happens with McCain and McKinney. One way or another, stay tuned because at some point this week we will publish the full text of Obama's responses.