Hillary Clinton was going door to door in Las Vegas with state Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, visiting Hispanic and black neighborhoods. From the Las Vegas Review Journal article, they stopped in on Gilberto Santana:
Santana told Clinton how his wife, Elizabeth, a housekeeper on the Strip, was barely supporting the family single-handedly while he was unable to work for two months because of an operation. "We're sort of struggling," he said. "We're getting there, but you have to be strong to make it." Clinton asked the couple questions about their mortgage and his disability payments, and answered his questions about immigration and the war and health care costs.
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I was reading through this article, and was transfixed by one exchange:
A man shouted through an opening in the wall that his wife was illegal. "No woman is illegal," Clinton said, to cheers.
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Follow me...
Hillary with the Santana Family
No woman is illegal. The truth of that statement is the best defense against the Republican "scary brown people" offensive we all know is coming this fall. In order to get the American public to see through the Republicans' objectification of undocumented workers in this country, it will be necessary to present the immigration crisis not as OUR problem, but "OUR" problem- a problem to be solved by the government in concert with our communities- one solution for all, not the government's solution to be inflicted on undocumented immigrants.
There has to be a path to legal status for the millions of undocumented immigrants now residing in this country- that much is obvious. All the Republican posturing in the world isn't going to change the fact that there is no mechanism possible to deport these undocumented workers and their families, so they're staying. Deal with it, America. All of our forebearers were in the same situation at one time or another, unless they arrived via the Bering land bridge. The country accommodated them.
What Hillary said today- no woman is illegal- isn't a call to anarchy and the overthrow of the immigration statutes. Sorry, Mitt, Mike, John, Rudy, and the rest of you Republicans. It's a call for common human decency, which, last time I checked, was still a progressive value. Quit dehumanizing people by assigning them their legal (or social or medical) category as an identity. We changed that in my field, mental health, a while back. We MADE employees who had been calling our customers "schizophrenics" and "bipolars" all their careers change their language. They're PEOPLE with mental disorders now, and we treat them differently as a result of this change of language.
So let's start with that. No more "illegals" as an identity, please. They're people. Maybe they're documented, maybe they're not, but the language in the Constitution applies to one and all, and it was written that way for a reason.
Selling a fearful American public an unworkable solution to the immigration situation is a Republican approach. Start from the basis of solving the problem of our communities, which consist of a mixture of documented and undocumented workers and their families, and you'll get somewhere. Hillary wants a workable solution. So do our undocumented neighbors. It's not just a philosophical issue for them.
To find out specifics of Hillary's immigration proposals, visit her website's immigration section. In a nutshell, they are:
1. strengthening of our borders
- greater cross-cooperation with our neighbors
- strict but fair enforcement of our laws
- federal assistance to our state and local governments
- strict penalties for those who exploit undocumented workers
6. and a path to earned legal status for those who are here, working hard,
paying taxes, respecting the law, and willing to meet a high bar. |
If you want to contribute to Hillary's campaign, please do it through the unofficial flying monkey bundling site here.