Rahm Emanuel, Immigrant Bogeymen and NAFTA Profiteers

[babylonsister]

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/11/19/rahm-emanuel-immigrant-bogeymen-and-nafta-profiteers/

Rahm Emanuel, Immigrant Bogeymen and NAFTA Profiteers
By: Jane Hamsher

As Rahm Emanuel continues his campaign to demonize immigrants, I think it’s valuable to place these actions in the larger context of his continuing support for the corporate welfare otherwise known as “free trade.” Sirota has an excellent piece connecting the dots:

The fact is, both Democrats and Republicans know that exploitation is at the heart of illegal immigration, but neither party is really willing to confront that exploitation because that would mean confronting their big corporate donors who are profiting off the status quo. And so, taking a scapegoat play out of the Reagan and Clinton playbooks, the con artists in both parties are trying to channel Americans’ intense anger at Big Money interests into a rage at illegal immigrants.

This is particularly disgusting on the Democratic side, mainly because the Democratic Party is supposed to be the party of the little guy, and of fairness. Instead, it is becoming the party of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) - the former investment banker and NAFTA architect who is cravenly trying to protect the moneyed interests that have underwritten his political career by playing to the ugliest societal instincts. The whole debate is about how much or little to punish undocumented workers - rather than about how to punish the moneyed interests that are abusing all workers, undocumented or otherwise.

Clearly, illegal immigration is a serious issue that needs to be addressed - but simply bashing illegal immigrants or proposing punitive measures against them doesn’t go the root problem, nor will it solve the issue.

But then, perhaps neither party wants to get to the root of the problem. Maybe both parties want a scapegoat to take take heat off the interests writing the big campaign checks. That would be a real tragedy, especially considering polls show that the American public is ready to embrace the kind of populist power-challenging politics that would be required to beef up wage/workplace safety enforcement and reform our globalization policies so that they lift up all workers, rather than crushing them and exacerbating the illegal immigration problem.

NAFTA was Rahm’s baby, and his reward was the congressional seat he now holds. He recruits Republicans for Democratic seats because he knows they will be reliable votes for the trade- and corporate-friendly legislation he promotes (drill down into the immigration bill he put forward through his puppet Heath Shuler and you’ll find yet another corporate boondoggle to privatize/raid more of the public sphere through the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security that the taxpayers underwrite). He’s a portrait of everything Naomi Klein warns about, and to do his dirty work he needs a convenient scapegoat for his narrative that immigrants serve well.

Now he’s turned into a concern troll, offering advice to Republicans. Word to Rahm: the Democrats don’t need a Karl Rove.

[EFerrari]

1. I believe this gentleman was the reason I switched my reg

after 25 years of working Democratic campaigns. How is he a Democrat, again?

[babylonsister]

2. I guess since the primaries in TX don't much matter, I may switch

back to independent. He sure doesn't represent me!x(

[EFerrari]

3. No matter how I personally feel, he doesn't seem to have done much

to promote the basic values of the Party. :(

[mod mom]

14. Always use "sarcasm" notation when referring to Emanuel as a gentleman. ;)

[bigtree]

4. Where does the author show that Emanuel 'demonizes immigrants'?

Nowhere. This is yet ANOTHER article which claims Emanuel is saying something or other to 'Democrats' and which FAILS to provide ONE quote from Emanuel or ONE quote from ONE legislator he supposedly talked to.

From one of the many linked articles throughout: "I've been hearing similar mumblings . . ."

Really? That's what passes for sourcing these days?

Nice hit piece(s). I'd love to hate the Emanuel these folks describe. I just don't have anything but their word to base that hate on.

[babylonsister]

5. Hamsher was quoting Sirota if you didn't go to the original

link (and why should you have as I posted the whole thing), here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/column-the-immigration-c_b_73289.html

They're just connecting dots. Emanuel is a DLC corporatist and has more to gain by keeping everything the way it is to appease the donors. I am not sure why you seem to be an apologist for Emanuel, but we've been through this before. You just love our party and everyone in it; I'm more critical and sceptical. We can agree to disagree, but I don't think Rahm has the majority of our best interests at heart, I really don't.

[bigtree]

7. Didn't I mention I read through the articles and links from them? Every one.

There is NO quote from Emanuel. NO quote from any of the legislators he supposedly said these things to. The 'dots' are just innuendo, biased by Sirotas (and Hamsher's) views on what they refer to as 'free trade'. But, eat it all up if that's your flavor of reporting. Where are Emanuel's actual views on trade in the articles? Where are the authors' for that matter, outside of their rhetoric . . . like your 'corporatist' label?

These are hit pieces written to whatever clique of folks are satisfying themselves with these broad attacks on our own party members. I can take the truth, when it's presented fairly. These articles are just factless opinion pieces which use Emanuel as their trampoline for their anti-'free trade', anti-Democratic leadership tirades.

[babylonsister]

9. Here's how he voted on immigration if you feel like wading through it:

http://profiles.numbersusa.com/improfile.php3?DistSend=IL&VIPID=1103

Here's another opinion piece that says the same thing basically as the OP:

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/10/rahm-emanuel-wrong-spokesperson-for.html

I've read several sources that claim he was, if not the architect, than a big proponent of NAFTA.

We can both draw our own conclusions.

[bigtree]

10. but, where can we find that Emanuel is 'bashing illegal immigrants'

like Sirota claims? He certainly doesn't spell that out. Nor does Hamsher qualify where she gets her charge that Emanuel has a 'campaign to demonize immigrants'.

Of course, we can just make shit up . . .

[EFerrari]

6. This may be a hit piece. And this is his "report card". Not pretty. Link:

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgrades.php3?District=IL05&VIPID=1103

[bigtree]

8. let's put it out front here from the link

2005-2006: Cosponsored H.R. 2330 to increase chain migration

Rep. Emanuel was a cosponsor of H.R. 2330 to increase permanent, legal immigration by adding an extra 254,000 family-based visas annually.

2004: Cosponsored H.R. 4262 to increase chain migration Rep. Emanuel cosponsored H.R. 4262, a bill to increase chain migration by increasing the number of family visas and exempting from the family-based visa ceiling all immediate relatives.

2003-2004: Cosponsored H.R. 3271 to increase chain migration Rep. Emanuel cosponsored H.R. 3271, a bill to increase chain migration by increasing the annual cap on family-based legal immigrants by about 250,000.

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgradescategory.php3?District=IL05&Category=2&Status=Career&VIPID=1103

Why is this significant? Are these "anti-immigrant'?


2005: Voted against H.R. 4437 to eliminate visa lottery on floor of House Rep. Emanuel voted against final passage of H.R. 4437 which included a provision to eliminate the visa lottery that each year awards 55,000 visas on a random basis. H.R. 4437 was passed by the House by a vote of 239 to 182.
2005: Voted for amendment to eliminate visa lottery Rep. Emanuel voted on the floor of the House in favor of the Goodlatte amendment to H.R. 4437. The Goodlatte Amendment would eliminate the visa lottery program that each year awards 55,000 visas on a random basis. The Amendment passed by a vote of 273 to 148.

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgradescategory.php3?District=IL05&Category=7&Status=Career&VIPID=1103


I'd be interested to hear what you think of this vote.


2007: Cosponsoring H.R. 1645 to drastically increase foreign-worker importation Rep. Emanuel is a cosponsor of H.R. 1645 to establish the H-2C “guestworker” program, through which 400,000 “new workers” (plus their spouses and minor children on an unlimited basis) may come to the United States annually. In addition, it would allow the annual cap on H-2C visas to be increased to as many as 600,000. These guestworkers would be allowed to stay up to six years, during which time they could petition for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status at any time (they may apply on their own after having been an H-2C for a total of five years). In addition to the H-2C provisions, the STRIVE Act would more than double the number of employment-based (EB) immigrant visas available annually; would exempt EB immigrants seeking admission to work in “shortage occupations” from numerical caps through fiscal year 2017; would vastly increase the cap on H-1B visas (i.e., a minimum cap of 115,000 per year ); would create various permanent exemptions from numerical caps on admission for “high skill” aliens; would extend the authorized stay of L-1 “intracompany transferee/specialized knowledge” nonimmigrants (no cap on these visas) for whom applications for LPR status are pending.

2005: Voted against CAFTA, foreign worker importation program Rep. Emanuel voted against H.R. 3045, the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (CAFTA). It is expected that CAFTA would create the expectation of immigration and lead to an increase in illegal immigration.

2005: Voted against amendment to prohibit foreign-worker importation provisions in Free Trade Agreements Rep. Emanuel voted against the Tancredo Amendment to H.R. 2862 to prevent the U.S. Trade Representative from including immigration provisions in Free Trade Agreements. The Tancredo Amendment failed by a vote of 106 to 322.

2005-2006: Cosponsored H.R. 2330 to increase foreign-worker importation Rep. Emanuel was a cosponsor of H.R. 2330 to add an extra 150,000 employment-based visas (mostly for unskilled workers) each year. Additionally, it would create a brand new \\\\\\\"guest\\\\\\\" worker program that would bring in 400,000 unskilled workers the first year. Depending on how fast U.S. employers grabbed up those visas, the total could increase by anywhere from 10 to 20 percent each year thereafter.

2003: Voted in favor of H.R. 2738, to increase foreign-worker visas Rep. Emanuel voted in favor of the Chile Free Trade Agreement, H.R. 2738, that would permit an unlimited number of tech and professional workers from Chile to enter the U.S. on L-1 visas. H.R. 2738 passed by a vote of 270-156.

2004: Cosponsored H.R. 4262 to increase foreign worker importation Rep. Emanuel cosponsored H.R. 4262 to increase annual limits on guestworkers. It would have increased the annual limit on H-2B visas to 100,000 and created a new H-1D visa for up to 250,000 guestworkers a year who are not covered by other visa categories.

2004: Cosponsored H.R. 4052 to increase low-skill worker importation Rep. Emanuel cosponsored H.R. 4052 to increase by 40,000 the annual cap for 2004 on H-2B visas for low-kill, temporary foreign workers.

2003: Voted in favor of a worker importation program Rep. Emanuel voted for the Singapore Free Trade Agreement, H.R. 2739 that would permit an unlimited number of Singaporeans to enter the U.S. as temporary workers. H.R. 2739 passed by a vote of 272-155.

2003-2004: Cosponsored H.R. 2702 to reduce worker importation Rep. Emanuel cosponsored H.R. 2702, a bill to provide much needed protections for American workers by preventing employers using the L-1 visa to hire foreign workers from displacing American workers to hire L-1s.

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgradescategory.php3?District=IL05&Category=5&Status=Career&VIPID=1103


Hmm, voted AGAINST CAFTA . . .


BTW . . . who are these people who put this together, and what's their bias?

[EFerrari]

12. That's a good question and I'll go check it out.

I've no stake in demonizing anyone.

(But you will have to wait while I ice my ankle as the puppy managed to push me over. I will check into as I can, though. That's fair. :)

[EFerrari]

13. This is their home page. Doesn't look like they're big supporters of immigration.

http://www.betterimmigration.com/

[babylonsister]

11. RAHM EMANUEL-- THE TOM TANCREDO OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

RAHM EMANUEL-- THE TOM TANCREDO OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

If he had a finger...

Yesterday's L.A. Times carries another example of how electing low life political hacks-- rather than statesmen-- to Congress insures that difficult, thorny problems don't really get tackled in a serious way. The story is subtitled Some think the party can toughen its image on illegal immigration without straying from traditional positions. That would be the penultimate congressional non-statesman, and hack without parallel, Rahm Emanuel (D-IL).

After Republican xenophobes were beaten in elections everywhere last week, it was widely accepted that voters were not going to decide elections based on demagoguery over immigration and that what people actually want are well thought out, comprehensive reforms. Emanuel, in charge of Democratic congressional messaging has his little shoppe of horrors busy rewriting history.

Top Democratic elected officials and strategists are engaged in an internal debate over toughening the party's image on illegal immigration, with some worried that Democrats' relatively welcoming stance makes them vulnerable to GOP attacks in the 2008 election.

Advocates of such a change cite local and state election results last week in Virginia and New York, where Democrats used sharper language and get-tough proposals to stave off Republican efforts to paint the party as weak on the issue.

In Virginia, for instance, where Democrats took control of the state Senate, one high- profile victory came in the Washington suburbs, where the winner distributed mailings in the campaign's closing days proclaiming his opposition to in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants.

The party's calibration could also be seen in New York, where a number of Democrats won local elections in part by opposing a plan by Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, and in the presidential campaign, in which party front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has struggled to explain whether she supports the Spitzer plan or not.

In Congress, a group of conservative Democrats, led by freshman Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina, introduced legislation last week calling for more Border Patrol agents, heightened surveillance and additional requirements that employers verify the legal status of workers.


"Top Democratic elected officials and strategists" would refer to old school collaborationist Democratic hacks Emanuel and Steny Hoyer. And in case you're not a regular DWT reader, let me emphasize that "freshman Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina" in a dull and reactionary Emanuel puppet acting on his master's behalf.

more...

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/11/rahm-emanuel-tom-tancredo-of-democratic.html