Bernie Voted to Authorize Homeland Security to Detain Immigrants Indefinitely

[TomCADem]

It is ironic that Bernie Sanders has been attacked Joe Biden's votes on a crime bill from the 1990s and he has criticized the Trump administration for the indefinite detention of immigrants when in 2006 Bernie voted to authorize Homeland Security to detain immigrants indefinitely.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/6094

Community Protection Act of 2006 - Title I: Dangerous Alien Detention Act of 2006 - (Sec. 101) Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to permit indefinite detention of specified dangerous aliens under orders of removal who cannot be removed, subject to review every six months. States that habeas corpus review of such provisions shall be available only in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after exhaustion of administrative remedies.

Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to: (1) detain an alien subject to an administrative final order of removal who has been granted a stay of removal during the pendency of such stay; and (2) parole an alien ordered removed and provide that such alien not be detained unless removal becomes foreseeable or the alien violates parole conditions.

The ACLU described the defects of this bill:

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-calls-house-reject-defective-immigration-bills

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today urged the House of Representatives to reject two immigration related measures. H.R. 6094, the Community Protection Act, and H.R. 6095, the Immigration Law Enforcement Act, will be voted on today. Both proposals waste scarce resources, unacceptably reduce or eliminate due process for both legal and undocumented immigrants, expand constitutionally suspect detention removal powers and procedures, and threaten civil liberties.

"With elections looming, the House is yet again focusing on ill-advised measures that score political points at the expense of our civil liberties," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "These proposals would undermine the very freedoms that serve as the backbone of America. We urge all lawmakers to reject these unwise and unfair bills."

H.R. 6094 would broaden the constitutionally dubious practice of indefinite detention. The Supreme Court has twice ruled that indefinite detention raises constitutional concerns, yet the bill unwisely expands that power. The ACLU noted the holding of people indefinitely is inhumane, an enormous waste of scarce detention resources and a power expected of repressive regimes, not of our own.

The bill also limits the type of claims immigrants can bring to challenge unlawful detention and would funnel all such challenges into one U.S. District Court. Similar proposals were included in the immigration reform bills that had previously stalled in Congress earlier this year.

[Cha]

1. KR

[uponit7771]

2. Has Sanders views changed on this issue? thx in advance

[sweetloukillbot]

3. He can't have. He's been consistent in his views for 50 years nt

[TomCADem]

10. Too true. Sort of Like Bernie Voting for Gun Maker Immunity

While he claims to be for gun control, he sort of ignores his votes for gun maker immunity and against the Brady Act. Likewise, he has attracted RW fans for his immigration, but now claims to be in support of immigrant rights.

[SunSeeker]

4. K & R

[Sloumeau]

5. K&R

[NoDakLinda]

6. The legislation in question is the Community Protection Act of 2006,

This information can be found on Politifact. By Louis Jacobson written on March 10, 2016

These are the pertinent facts I wrote in this reply.

Hillary Clinton stated on March 9, 2016 in a Democratic presidential debate in Miami: In 2006, Bernie Sanders "voted in the House with hard-line Republicans for indefinite detention for undocumented immigrants, and then he sided with those Republicans to stand with vigilantes known as Minutemen who were taking up outposts along the border to hunt down immigrants."

The legislation in question is the Community Protection Act of 2006, which passed the House on Sept. 21, 2006, but died in the Senate.

Sanders did vote for the bill, along with almost all Republicans and a majority of the House Democratic caucus. (At that time in Congress Sanders identified himself as an independent.) By backing it, Sanders went against the urgings of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Council of La Raza, a prominent Hispanic group. So, what did the bill do?

According to the Congressional Research Service’s official summary of the bill, it would, among other things, "permit indefinite detention of specified dangerous aliens under orders of removal who cannot be removed, subject to review every six months."

The bill itself says, "With regard to length of detention, an alien may be detained under this section, without limitation, until the alien is subject to an administratively final order of removal."

Hearing this statement, one might assume the power was a direct threat to a broad swath of the undocumented immigrant population.

In reality, the types of undocumented immigrants who would be affected by this provision are a specific, smaller subset -- those who are deportable, often due to having a criminal record, but who are awaiting a final legal decision.

[calimary]

8. Bookmarking cuz I can't stop to read it all til later.

[NurseJackie]

9. I can't wait to see how this will be defended. Will it be spun as being a positive?

Will someone try to blame Obama, or Biden, or Hillary?

[R B Garr]

11. K&R! Great info.