Trump

DACA Under Siege by Trump and AG Jeff Sessions

NVRDC

Last week, Trump pardoned Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a notorious national symbol of racism who refused court orders to stop his racial profiling in his zealous multi-year campaign of persecution against Latino communities. Now, one week later, Trump is throwing MORE red meat to his anti-immigrant and white supremacist supporters by going after immigrant kids, once again undermining American values in order to feed the bigotry of his extreme base. 

This morning, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced to the world that we, as a nation, can no longer be trusted to keep its word, that our word is no longer our bond. You see, in a stunning act of cruelty even for Trump, he had Attorney General Jeff Sessions announce termination of key parts of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program effective six months from now, upending the lives of 800,000+ young people. That 

DACA recipients – often referred to as DREAMers — were brought to the US as children and for many of them this is the only country they’ve ever really known. Under the DACA program, they registered with the government and passed background checks in exchange for being able to work, pay taxes, and feel secure in their homes without the fear of deportation.

Many on the anti-immigrant Right who have been fighting against DACA since Day One have focused their criticism on the way in which it was done – with an executive order by President Obama. They have claimed that the real problem was just that Congress didn’t pass the law – so now it’s up to Congress to call their bluff and pass the DREAM Act.

Congress needs to act now to protect our investment in their education and assimilation before Trump releases his hordes of ICE thugs to begin deportation of DREAMers as their 2-yr authorizations come up for  renewals. And we even have a head start, because the bill already has bipartisan support!

Congress can undo this outrage by passing the DREAM Act of 2017, which would provide a path to citizenship for DACA recipients and other young undocumented immigrants who graduate from US high schools and attend college, enter the workforce, or enlist in a military program.

In the Senate, the DREAM Act is sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) … we need to demand that the Senate make this bipartisan bill a priority, to get relief to the DREAMers who need it.

Petition:  << Tell Congress to PASS the DREAM Act of 2017 without delay! >>

Or, better yet, take a moment from your day and call or write your members of Congress and ask them to expedite bringing the Dream Act of 2017 [ House bill#:  H.R.3440 / Senate bill#: S.1615 ] to the floor for a vote AND to vote for its passage:

Bernie Sanders: Big Business ‘Took trump Hostage and Won’

vickielrock

In essence, United Technologies took trump hostage, he caved, and United Technologies won.  And, that should send a shock wave of fear through all workers across this country.

—by Nika Knight, Common Dreams staff writer

The Carrier plant in Indianapolis, Indiana, where United Technologies is preserving only 1,000 jobs in exchange for a reportedly large tax cut and regulatory favors promised by President-elect Donald Trump. (Photo: Darron Cummings/AP)
The Carrier plant in Indianapolis, Indiana, where United Technologies is preserving only 1,000 jobs in exchange for a reportedly large tax cut and regulatory favors promised by President-elect donald trump. (Photo: Darron Cummings/AP)

President-elect donald trump has bowed to corporate power and walked back his own campaign promises mere weeks after being elected, says Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a Washington Post op-ed published Thursday.

trump betrayed workers with a massive hand-out—reportedly a large promised tax cut and “regulatory favors”—to United Technologies, the owner of Carrier, in exchange for the company keeping a portion of its Indiana factory jobs in the U.S., Sanders argues.
Sanders excoriates the real estate mogul’s decision:

President-elect donald trump will reportedly announce a deal with United Technologies, the corporation that owns Carrier, that keeps less than 1,000 of the 2,100 jobs in America that were previously scheduled to be transferred to Mexico. Let’s be clear: It is not good enough to save some of these jobs. trump made a promise that he would save all of these jobs, and we cannot rest until an ironclad contract is signed to ensure that all of these workers are able to continue working in Indiana without having their pay or benefits slashed.

In exchange for allowing United Technologies to continue to offshore more than 1,000 jobs, trump will reportedly give the company tax and regulatory favors that the corporation has sought. Just a short few months ago, trump was pledging to force United Technologies to “pay a damn tax.” He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United States. Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut. Wow! How’s that for standing up to corporate greed? How’s that for punishing corporations that shut down in the United States and move abroad?

trump’s decision, the Vermont senator argues, greatly endangers American jobs. It sends a signal to “every corporation in America” that executives can threaten to move jobs overseas “in exchange for business-friendly tax benefits and incentives.”

“And who would pay for the high cost for tax cuts that go to the richest businessmen in America? The working class of America,” Sanders notes.

The working class is subsidizing an already absurdly wealthy billionaire corporate class, argues the democratic socialist, and trump’s move will make that trend worse.

“Last year, [United Technologies] made a profit of $7.6 billion and received more than $6 billion in defense contracts,” observes Sanders. “It has also received more than $50 million from the Export-Import Bank and very generous tax breaks. In 2014, United Technologies gave its former CEO Louis Chenevert a golden parachute worth more than $172 million. Last year, the company’s five highest-paid executives made more than $50 million. The firm also spent $12 billion to inflate its stock price instead of using that money to invest in new plants and workers.”

“Does that sound like a company that deserves more corporate welfare from our government?” Sanders wonders.

Sanders plans to introduce an anti-outsourcing bill when Congress reconvenes in January, which would levy a tax against corporations for outsourcing American jobs. The move could highlight the hypocrisy of Trump’s pro-worker campaign rhetoric and his pro-corporate actions.

“If donald trump won’t stand up for America’s working class,” writes Sanders, “we must.”

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