Bernie Sanders

Sanders Campaign Press Release - Sanders Addresses La Raza on Racism and Immigration

July 13, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders appeared here on Monday at the annual convention of the National Council of La Raza.

The son of an immigrant from Poland, Sanders called for comprehensive immigration reform and denounced those who would divide Americans over race and national origin.

He referred specifically to recent remarks by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

While "racism has plagued the United States since its inception," Sanders said the nation has advanced. "We should be proud that in recent decades we have made real progress," he said. But he cautioned that voices of division remain and must be forcefully rejected.

"Not Donald Trump, not anyone else will be successful in dividing us based on race or on our country of origin. America becomes a greater nation, a stronger nation, when we stand together as one people and in a loud and clear voice we say no to racism and bigotry," Sanders said.

Also in his address to one of the nation's leading Latino organizations, Sanders spoke of the "critical need to enact comprehensive immigration reform" to give a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented people who came to the United States to improve their lives and escape oppression. "They play an important role in our economy," he said. "They are part of the fabric of America."

Sanders spoke of his own family's experience. His father moved to the United States as a teenager who had no money and knew no English.

"Like immigrants before and after, he worked hard to help his family," Sanders said. "Your story, our story, my story is the story of America. It is a story rooted in family and fueled by hope."

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Bernie Sanders, Sanders Campaign Press Release - Sanders Addresses La Raza on Racism and Immigration Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/314140

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