Ted Kennedy, Champion of Immigrant Rights
Published August 26, 2009 @ 04:44AM PT
For decades, Senator Ted Kennedy fought in the halls of Congress on behalf of immigrants and their families. You can see the history of his involvement with leaders like Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez in the photos at the website of the United Farmworkers, which today mourns his passing.
Some Congress watchers may wonder how immigration reform can succeed without Kennedy working to push it through the legislative process. I think he would find fault with that sentiment and encourage us to continue to fight.
Update: Many of my change.org co-bloggers were also inspired by the work of Senator Kennedy. Here are the results by topic:
Animal Rights
Gay Rights
Genocide
Global Health
Global Warming
Health Care
Homelessness
Humanitarian Relief
Social Entrepreneurship
US Poverty
Women's Rights
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Comments (41)
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David is an attorney in Philadelphia, PA, where he helps immigrants to the U.S. navigate the complex immigration legal system. Views he expresses at change.org are his alone and don't represent the views or opinions of his employer, Nationalities Service Center. The information contained on this site is intended for educational and advocacy purposes only.
Senator Kennedy has had a long and distinguished career in the Senate, and his absence will be sorely noticed. That's 2 Kennedy sibling deaths in a month.
In my mind he will always be remembered for his sponsorship of the misguided Immigration legislation of 1965, which set our nation on the current course of high immigration and high population growth This despite his own words, which I quote here:
"Out of deference to the critics, I want to comment on … what the bill will not do. First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same … Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset … Contrary to the charges in some quarters, S.500 will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and economically deprived nations of Africa and Asia. In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think. Thirdly, the bill will not permit the entry of subversive persons, criminals, illiterates, or those with contagious disease or serious mental illness. As I noted a moment ago, no immigrant visa will be issued to a person who is likely to become a public charge … the charges I have mentioned are highly emotional, irrational, and with little foundation in fact. They are out of line with the obligations of responsible citizenship. They breed hate of our heritage."(Senate Part 1, Book 1, pp. 1-3)
Hopefully, nobody will pick up his tarnished mantle. We miss you Teddy.
Posted by Kurt Thialfad on 08/26/2009 @ 07:09AM PT
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do you support the race-based quota system previously in place that kept out almost all africans and asians? the same quota system that was originally designed to keep out jews and italians?
by opposing the 1965 Act, you are necessarily supporting the system in place before. i don't know how you can do that without conceding support of immigration by race, which your side claims to oppose.
Posted by Dave Bennion on 08/26/2009 @ 09:28PM PT
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I'm not really on anybody's side except my own. I formulate my own view and relate to those who have similar views. I'm not so much into race-based immigration, as much as lower rates. But one has to recognize the biological nature of mankind. Our planet has climate zones based on latitude. I am not comfortable in the tropics, as a tropical person is not comfortable in our temperate zone. People like to live where they are comfortable.
Posted by Kurt Thialfad on 08/26/2009 @ 09:54PM PT
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Many of us will continue to carry out the work of Teddy Kenneddy. Tonight I attended a childrens vigil and listened to many US citizen children stand up and tell their storys one by one about how their parents were ripped out of their lives and taken away from them. Most of these children are growing up in this country everyday knowing that their system has torn apart their family. Their were candles lit around 9 churchs and they burn through the night around the names of people who died in detention and the name of people who remain in detention over a immigration status issue. I ask all that all people that pass by these candles or learn about this issue to think about it. This issue may not effect a person directly or they may not have a friend or family member that had been hurt in this system but we must ask ourselves: Do we want to wake up everyday in a country that would split up familys and take away husbands, children, wives or financees...relatives or even friends and jail them or treat them in an abusive manner based on an immigration status. Is this the country that we are meant to be? Our ancestors came here for a better life and to seek freedom.
When we look at the statue of liberty we are reminded of her beauty and meaning and we clearly see this was not the country she intended us to be.
And our candles will continue to burn threw the night until we have a resolution.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 09/15/2009 @ 10:00PM PT
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The last word by Mary P.!!! bless hers and ana's and a few others hearts.
Posted by Gary Stein on 09/16/2009 @ 04:52AM PT
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Bless your heart also Gary Stein! :)
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 09/16/2009 @ 08:39AM PT
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I hope his family finds peace in his passing. I didn't agree with his politics but it is always sad when a human being dies.
Kurt, I wonder if Kennedy thought about his words quoted above in recent years in view of the fact that quite the opposite has happened? Even though he had a brain tumor surely he must have remembered saying that.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 08/26/2009 @ 09:57AM PT
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Yes, Mark, my hope is that he thought of his words every day, but sadly I doubt that this is the case. It is always sad when someone dies. He was controversial in his career, that's true. He was a womanizer and a boozer; no one will argue about that. I shook hands with both John and Robert Kennedy. I idolized those two. Ted was no John Kennedy.
Posted by Wire Paladin on 08/26/2009 @ 10:46AM PT
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I also shook hands with John Kennedy in Los Angeles long ago. I think of those three brothers I respected Robert the most.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 08/26/2009 @ 05:51PM PT
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As for racial quotas in our immigration policies, I think now and in the past we should first base the numbers on our labor needs. Of course skilled and educated workers should get the nod above unkilled ones no matter what their race/ethnicity is.
Since there is an abundance of unskilled and uneducated workers available all over the world, it is only fair that we allot equal quotas by nationality/ethnicity.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 08/27/2009 @ 06:34AM PT
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Kennedy said:
Contrary to the charges in some quarters, S.500 will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and economically deprived nations .
Yet that is exactly what happened through illegal immmigration, isn't it? I have to wonder why Kennedy didn't speak out against this phenomonum years later and up until his death based on his own words back in 1965.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 08/27/2009 @ 06:40AM PT
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Ted Kennedy on Immigration
1965: "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."
1986: "This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.1 to 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders henceforth. We will never again bring forward another amnesty bill like this."
2007: "Now it is time for action. 2007 is the year we must fix our broken system."
Posted by elliot Foley III on 08/27/2009 @ 06:12PM PT
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Hmm, no comments from the pro-advocates on what Kennedy said long ago?
Posted by Mark Lindley on 08/28/2009 @ 07:03AM PT
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We're hearing many anecdotes about how he helped immigrants enter the US. These may be many acts of kindness, but wasn't he working for the people of Massachusetts? Along with these many stories of him helping immigrants, one would expect much many more stories about how he helped and showed kindness to the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Posted by Kurt Thialfad on 08/28/2009 @ 08:53AM PT
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Fascinating that a bunch of us on the conservative side had direct involvement or contact with the Kennedy campaigns yet wound up as Republicans. Our age might have something to do with it. Sometimes you get more realistic as you get older? Government "waste" did me in eventually.
I was 16 in 1972 when I went to hear Kennedy give a speech in Hackensack, N.J. on behalf of George McGovern. And 76 was the last year I ever went ga-ga over a Democrat. I thought Birch Bayh of Indiana was the greatest thing ever to come down the pike. Wasn’t even sure if he was still alive until I saw him on TV the other day reminiscing about Kennedy. He pulled Kennedy out of the plane wreckage when he broke his back.
My web site (stein for governor) mentions the e-mails I send that never get returned by the elite media snobs and some politicians. About 6 months ago I sent one to Evan Bayh. In the kindest words I mentioned how much I admired his father a long time ago, and I wished Evan well. Granted I checked the box that said no reply was necessary, still it would have been nice to hear from “the Senator.” By the way, didn’t mention anything about Beto or anything else other then 1976 and his father’s presidential run. Jimmy Carter was it for me and the D’s. Couldn’t stand him.
Bobby Kennedy has always been my hero and John a little less so. I was totally indifferent to Ted Kennedy. Wish i could have had 30 minutes on his sail boat though and talked amnesty and boycott. he was a great behind the scenes legislator.
Posted by Gary Stein on 08/28/2009 @ 02:39PM PT
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lol, that reminds me Gary of an old saying. When you are young and are not a liberal you have no heart. When you are older and are not a conservative you have no brain. I hope I quoted it right.
Robert Kennedy was my favorite of the Kennedy brothers also.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 08/28/2009 @ 04:31PM PT
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Mark if you saw my other threads this morning you know I’m having a hard time getting out the door. This is what usually happens, I’m getting ready in the garage and I have a record playing (that’s where the collection is, in the dirty garage) while I load up the truck.)
Then I remember there was a kumbaya element to this Kennedy story, and an ode to naive youthfulness. I had this song on by a different artist (Jackie Cain and Roy Crawl). Is it appropriate, I don’t know, you didn’t seem to like my observation about how pretty ana lisa looks in her new picture. Here’s the 70’s and 60’s anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqEHaQ1RbME
Posted by Gary Stein on 08/30/2009 @ 08:19AM PT
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Somehow I don't think the "others" will be seeing the logic of that saying the same way you and i do, but it's true (most of the time). Did you ever read any books on Ronald Reagan, Mark? Too many people don't give him credit for beeing too smart (do they show their ignorance) but one book in particular had an interesting chapter about the transformation in his politics during the time he was president of the screen actors guild- I'll leave it at that. I actually have that book here at home. I think I'm going to re-read the chapter, I can't remember the incident exactly but it was eye opening. Maybe you'll be nice enough to ask me about it tomorrow (since ana lisa doesn't want to hear about the conversation I had with the owner of the Mexican restaurant and i've asked her a number of times.)
Posted by Gary Stein on 08/28/2009 @ 08:51PM PT
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Gary, email it to me (this isn't the place for that). Thanks
Posted by a d on 08/30/2009 @ 06:24PM PT
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Not necessary, this is short. Did you ever hear the expression all politics is local? My friend, the restaurant owner ( who is legal), was more interested in telling me about how her sister (not legal), who was stopped and ticketed to the tune of $400 dollars by the police two towns over- for not having a United States drivers license- then she was in talking about a boycott of Mexico. The irony is that I’m the only guy running for office, probably in the entire country, who is for giving her sister, and others like her, drivers licenses immediately. Har, har, I really am going to jump off a bridge eventually. Maybe the Walt Whitman, not far from where Dave works.
Posted by Gary Stein on 08/30/2009 @ 07:58PM PT
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Gary, what I said is that I don't care what anyone looks like in here. I didn't object to your remarks or observations about a female in here. Actually, I don't see that they looked any diffferent anyway. I look for inward beauty rather than outward beauty. It is much more meaningful.
No, I haven't read any books about Reagan. I think he was well liked by most because of the charisa he seemed to exude.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 08/30/2009 @ 08:30AM PT
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Mark, I’ve been warned numerous times to be on topic or else! That might make for some dull threads but I’ll try. So how do I tie in Ted Kennedy, into my thoughts on Ronald Reagan, my hero? I didn’t see any of the tributes this weekend, but I’m sure there where many reminisces about Kennedy’s, who knows, his common touch maybe? So for arguments sake let’s say the liberal media loved repeating stories like that. One thing I always admired about Reagan, was that he was famous for exchanging hand written personal letters, sometimes for decades, with some average person he might have bumped into during his travels. The press always snickered about that. I’ve read some of the letters; they’re extremely well written and touching.
Anyway rest in peace Ted Kennedy, poor- no respect Stein for Governor has a soft spot in his heart for the Kennedy clan. I think John Jr. would have eventually been elected President, I really do. If that’s the case I’m not sure Obama would be president now. It’s fate more often then not. I also heard that Ted Kennedy’s son gave a very moving eulogy for his father. I saw Teddy Jr. on TV at length, years ago, and was very impressed.
And his brother Bobby is my all time hero, by coincidence so isn’t he Bill O’Reilly’s hero too. So I love it when people paint with a broad brush.
As a matter of fact, the first thing you’d read on the old Stein for Congess web site, after the words “we want you to vote” is this: If the single man plant himself on his instincts,and there abide, the huge world will come round to him. Candidate quoting Robert Kennedy, quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Eventually the huge world will come around, I hope to the tune of 2 or 3% of the vote in NJ.
p.s. Bobby Kennedy was very close to Caesar Chavez, and had immense empathy for the downtrodden, including native Americans and migrant workers!!!!!!. (on topic).
Posted by Gary Stein on 08/30/2009 @ 07:52PM PT
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I sure hope there are others like him in congress. RIP!! We need people fighting for immigration rights! Especially people like me, who have children, and their father was taken by immigration. Yeah, definately need to keep this fight going strong.
Posted by Brittney Benedict on 08/31/2009 @ 04:35AM PT
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It would have been nice had he spent more time helping his Massachusetts constituents, rather than foreigners.
Posted by Kurt Thialfad on 08/31/2009 @ 05:33AM PT
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Bobby Kennedy was very close to Caesar Chavez,
But Chavez was an multi-generational American of Yaqui heritage who was adamantly opposed to illegal immigration because it undermined the wages of his workers. The dude is rolling in his grave.
Posted by Kurt Thialfad on 08/31/2009 @ 07:01PM PT
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Perhaps you're right about him in that decade- not going to take that at face value though, will look that up. would he be rolling in his grave given today's circumstances?
Posted by Gary Stein on 08/31/2009 @ 07:37PM PT
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Please stop spreading false and misleading information. As an undergrad, I worked on a support committee for the UFW. Cesar Chavez worked against the Bracero program because it was an exploitive program. And he did oppose strikebreakers of any stripe -- legal or undocumented. In fact, the UFW was instrumental in getting the amnesty provisions in the 1986 federal immigration act. So, please get your facts straight for once!
Posted by a d on 09/02/2009 @ 06:42PM PT
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Cesar Chavez changed his position on Illegal Immigrants in the mid 1980's due to Chicano Activists. Prior to that, Chavez testified before Congress against Illegal Immigrants. Had members to include family (cousin) along the border preventing Illegal crosser's from reaching the USA, 1973 the "wet line". Read a book:
Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity.
It was later, the mid 1980's in which Chavez began to fight for the rights of all workers, when he met up with Delorus Huerta.
Kurts "facts" are straight. Regrettably, so are yours, try recognizing both the bad and good next time.
Posted by Liquids Reign on 09/02/2009 @ 07:20PM PT
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hi ana, typing with one hand, on hold waiting for tech support help on web site, i'm astute enough (i think) to know that last comment by you was not directed at me (or was it)? i said i was not taking what he said at face value. O.K. I'm off phone and there i see it says "get your facts straight for once" so i feel better, you're yelling at Kurt. guess what? just bought another web site, "I'll save you yet Beto!"
Posted by Gary Stein on 09/02/2009 @ 07:28PM PT
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Well yeah, I too supported the 1986 Amnesty, and Itoo got burned. It was supposed to cover only 2 million aliens; it was supposed to usher in new stringent enforcement measures; and it was supposed to be the last, only, and final 'amnesty'.
We've had 7 amnesties since.
Didn't a famous man once say, "Fool me once....".
I have since become an ardent and devoted reductionist.
Posted by Kurt Thialfad on 09/03/2009 @ 09:56AM PT
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Senatory Kennedy was a tireless champion of immigrants, the poor and all the marginalized people in this country. He will be deeply missed by all of us in the immigrants rights movement. Juan Gonzalez of DemocracyNow talked about his legacy in a recent broadcast:
...in 1969, Ted Kennedy marched with the farm workers to Calexico on the Mexican border in California, one of the—an eight-day, 200-mile march that was one of the turning points, the pivotal moments in the history of United Farm Workers. He then spoke at their founding convention of the Farm Workers. And throughout his career, Kennedy was the main defender of trying to get immigration reform, migrant education for children of migrants. He was the main stalwart.
And Dolores reminds me that even at the height of the Reagan era in 1986, Kennedy was able to maneuver to get the Immigration and Reform Control Act, IRCA, or the Simpson-Rodino, as it’s called. He was the one who convinced Alan Simpson, the conservative Republican from Wyoming, to sponsor the bill in the Senate, and which resulted in about two million undocumented workers being able to achieve legalization in the United States.
So, it was throughout his life that he was involved in this. And as I mentioned in my column, in all the fields of the United States, from the Imperial Valley of California to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and the cane fields of Florida, the role—Kennedy will sorely be missed, in terms of him being the main champion for immigrants and for farm workers.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/28/immigrants_champion_juan_gonzalez_on_ted
Rest in peace, Senator. Thank you for your great heart and for your compassionate voice on behalf of migrants. You will be sorely missed.
Posted by a d on 09/02/2009 @ 06:58PM PT
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ana lisa I’m back to crazy tonight. I was serious for as long as I could in the other story, back and forth, back and forth with Reigns. So that’s the facts. I just saw the word Calexico mentioned in that tribute you quoted. I thought Calexico was a band? Seems like it's a town on the border.
Get ready to faint, here’s a link to my old web site with music by Calexico playing in background. The text is a little over done, my friend in Phoenix, Sam, he did all the posting and what got posted in a rush, stayed posted. Anyway feel free to browse through the pages and see lots and lots of pictures of Mexico and it’s citizens. http://www.theyokelnews.com/Contact_Me.html
Don’t forget to turn the volume up. Has anyone seen this before? Mark admitted he hasn’t’even seen Stein for Governor after all the links for it I added. Has anyone seen this before?
Posted by Gary Stein on 09/02/2009 @ 07:45PM PT
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Ana lisa, I did write a few last words on this blog for the moment until I see real CHANGE on change.org....although they will not be my last words by far on this issue. I have only just begun to fight for resolutions and real solutions that benefit "all people" in the US. I must tell you that the childrens vigil in Highland Park was a peaceful and successful gathering of many. Our candles were left to burn through the night. There were signs left to acknowlege and represent people such as Auturo Alverez and Avid Taneer and there candles stood glowing through the night to respect the dead and all who lost their lives in these horror jail systems. This function took place in 9 reformed churchs nationwide.
Amongst the dead we respected were the signs made to respect those who live and those who are torn apart in this system and remain in detention or have been deported and separated from our "fellow American children".
The children bravely stood up and spoke one at a time while people passed by the church and stopped to see what our "horrific" system has done to destroy and separate their familys. Our Pastor concluded the ceromony with a folk song that he wrote about the awful system and one detainee. His song sent a strong honest message.
People who passed looked in shook...as the candles continued to burn through the night.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 09/16/2009 @ 08:56AM PT
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Cesar Chavez on Illegal ImmigrationPosted by Pete Campbell on Friday, August 07, 2009 More: Politics,
Was Cesar Chavez a racist? No, I don’t think so. But today, people of every political stripe and ethnicity are labeled “racists” for espousing some of the same attitudes towards immigration and immigration law as Cesar Chavez did.
In their book, “Cesar Chavez: A Triumph Of Spirit,” Richard Griswold Del Castillo and Richard Garcia report: “It has been well documented…Agribusiness regularly employed Mexican immigrants as strike breakers; and Chavez and UFW leaders complained about the ‘porous border’ with Mexico.
“Beginning with the grape boycott of 1965, Chavez both championed the rights of immigrants and advocated vigorous police measures to enforce labor laws…the apparent contradiction between advocating the rights of Mexican immigrants to fair treatment and yet favoring immigration restrictions led, in the 1970’s, to open criticism of Chavez’s position by Chicano immigration-rights activists.”
And, in “The Fight In The Fields-Cesar Chavez And The Farmworkers Movement,” by Susan Ferris and Ricardo Sandoval, we read: “The union has sometimes been characterized as anti-immigrant because Chavez instructed union members to call the INS if they suspected undocumented workers had been brought into struck fields.”
Posted by Mark Lindley on 09/02/2009 @ 07:04PM PT
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Ted Kennedy was *famous* for stiffing bartenders and waitresses. He'd just get up and walk out!
We need to overturn that 1965 bill.
The last thing we need in this country is more unskilled workers from *any* country.
I'd like to see a moratorium on all immigration and those scam "refugee" and "asylum" programs for 20 or 30 years.
Immigration to*any* country is not a "right.".
Posted by Thomas Porter on 09/14/2009 @ 11:00PM PT
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Have we met? Where have you been since last March when you were all over this sight? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCKPgq94hD0
we're in a slow phase here, everybody's been taking a vacation since labor day (after the summer rates went down)
Posted by Gary Stein on 09/15/2009 @ 05:40AM PT
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Thomas, I agree with most of what you have said. We need to research our actual foreign labor needs based on employment of Americans first and our growing population and how we are going to provide them with healthcare, education, natural resources, housing, etc. before importing more immigrants (legally of course). I have no problem with legal immigration from anywhere as long as it is fair to all immigrants and in the best interests of this country first.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 09/15/2009 @ 03:54PM PT
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Teddy Kennedy was a champion for those in our country illegally. Legal immigrants don't need a champion.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 09/16/2009 @ 05:44AM PT
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"The last word by Mary P.!!! bless hers and ana's and a few others hearts." Posted by Gary Stein on 09/16/2009 @ 04:52AM
Mark can’t you stifle it one time?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT2QKEs-XEs
Posted by Gary Stein on 09/16/2009 @ 05:59AM PT
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Why stifle the truth, Gary? Their so-called humanitarism is totally misplaced. What I said about Kennedy was the absolute truth.
Posted by Mark Lindley on 09/16/2009 @ 06:47AM PT
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Mark, Teddy Kennedy was a champion for all people!
Do you recognize all those handycap spots when you pull up in a parking lot allocated for crippled people and all those bathroom stalls businesses had installed for crippled people?
That is the works of Teddy Kennedy.
Do you recognize the cobra program that stops an insurance company from dropping you when you lose your job. The program that gives the employee the option of continueing healthcare coverage when you are unemployed?
That is the champion work of Teddy Kennedy.
Teddy Kennedy is more than a champion....he our political hero that has fought and stood up for all the people in this country.
Gary...Mark can never stiffle it because he has an unreasonable "one track" brain. It can not comprehend the truth.
Posted by Mary Pranzatelli on 09/16/2009 @ 08:45AM PT
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