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Howard Berman Wins Fight Against Brad Sherman Among Immigrants' Rights Activists

Paresh Dave |
October 12, 2012 | 12:03 p.m. PDT

Executive Director

Howard Berman seen in 2008. (Andrew Feinberg/Flickr)
Howard Berman seen in 2008. (Andrew Feinberg/Flickr)
Immigrants rights activists defended Representative Howard Berman the morning after his race to represent most of the western San Fernando Valley in Congress against Rep. Brad Sherman witnessed a physical and verbal altercation about whether Berman spearheaded important immigrants rights legislation.

"Howard Berman is one of the greatest champions of immigration and immigration rights that U.S. Congress has ever seen," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the activist group America’s Voice, during a teleconference with reporters. He said the call was organized without consulting Berman's campaign.

At a debate Thursday night, Sherman said Berman was not one of the original co-sponsors of  legislation to give young adults in the country illegally a path to legal residency. Sherman grabbed Berman around the shoulder and asked him, "Do you want to get into this?", causing a sheriff's deputy to walk in between and place his hand on Sherman's back as if to make sure no punches were thrown.

Sherman said it was Rep. Luis Gutierrez who originally introduced such legislation. Though Gutierrez was integral to getting the conversation started, Sharry said it was Berman, responding to a plea of a teenager in his distrct, who offered the first comprehensive solution with Reps. Chris Cannon and Lucille Roybal-Allard in May 2001. Sherman never signed on as a co-sponsor of that 2001 legislation. Cannon, a Republican from Utah, was the lead sponsor of the bill because Berman felt it would have better chance of passage if a Republican's name was attached to it, thus making it the Cannon-Berman bill.

This Student Adjustment Act was eventually combined with Sen. Dick Durbin's Dream Act in the Senate, and collectively became known as the Dream Act as it evolved during the 2000s. MyNumbersUSA, an anti-immigration group which gives out low grades to members of Congress who support immigrant rights, has awarded Berman a D for his career. Sherman has a received a slightly higher C-.

"We can say Sherman has not voted the wrong way, but he has rarely engaged with the Latino immigrant community," said Angelica Salas, board chair of CHIRLA Action Fund.

Berman and Sherman are engaged in a rare general election contest between a pair of Democrats because redistricting last year folded Berman's district in Sherman's. The district is about 45 percent Asian and Latino, two key immigrant voting groups. One of the fiercest Congressional elections in Los Angeles County, the deciding factor may actually be Republican and independent voters in the San Fernando Valley. That could explain why Sherman has a double-digit lead in polls. Even on Google, more people are searching for Sherman.

"We're on a campaign to hold accountable all the candidates who opposed the Dream Act,"  said Cesar Vargas, managing partner of DRM Action Coalition. "We're not fighting for parties, we're not fighting for candidates. We're fighting for people who will stand up for the Dream Act. Howard Berman has really set the standard for what it means to be a Dream Act supporter."

Vargas said he was in Congress has Berman explained the importance of the Dream Act before a crucial vote.

"It was Howard Berman who stood his ground," Vargas said. "For us, that was really incredible."

The measure didn't pass out of Congress that month. But President Barack Obama signed an executive order this year giving two-year work permits to young adults in the country illegally.

Like reporter Paresh Dave on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, circle him on Google+ or send him an e-mail.



 

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Comments

quercus454 (not verified) on October 13, 2012 8:53 AM

That should have been below!

Your rating: None
games system stands (not verified) on December 21, 2012 12:51 AM

I visited various web pages however the audio quality for audio songs present at this
website is actually fabulous.

Your rating: None
quercus454 (not verified) on October 13, 2012 8:52 AM

To all my fellow patriots above, well written and I second all of your comments.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)
mobilebay (not verified) on October 13, 2012 7:10 AM

Does anyone "in charge" realize how insane any talk about rewarding criminals is? This is akin to having someone break into your home and you welcome him, shower him with goodies and invite him to live with you forever with a promise to support him in the style to which he feels entitled.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)
Anonymous (not verified) on October 13, 2012 6:10 AM

"ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY!"

Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.

The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.

Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.

What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?

How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?

And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?

But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.

They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.

Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)
Dr Gene Nelson (not verified) on October 13, 2012 5:55 AM

As one of the activists who walked the halls of the U.S. Senate twice to share the opposition of millions of Americans to the "DREAM Act" when it was voted on in 2010, this is an incredibly slanted article, giving scant mention to taxpayer opposition to providing more lures for illegal aliens to sneak across the border or overstay their visas. Robert Rector of the Heritage Institute recently laid out the math at CPAC and in U.S. House testimony. The typical illegal alien family consumes about $30,000 in taxpayer-funded benefits per year and pays $10,000 in taxes. That means the taxpayers have to pay $20,000 per year! Then, because of the almost nonexistent protections against non-citizens voting via motor-voter legislation, these illegal aliens VOTE. (Wouldn't you vote for political leaders that gave you $20,000 per year?) So, this scam converts funds provided mostly by middle-class taxpayers into illegal alien votes. Clearly, there are economic elites that benefit as well, as the resultant labor gluts across a broad spectrum of jobs (even medical doctors and Ph.D.s that have overstayed their work visas) drive down wages. Many of these same elites benefit economically as the prices of the necessaries of life including food and shelter are bid upwards by the historically unprecedented NUMBERS of illegal aliens. NumbersUSA estimates that about 20 million illegal aliens have entered the U.S. in the past 2 decades. (I think that number is an under-estimate.) It is time for this insanity to stop! The U.S. has recently forcibly repatriated millions of illegal aliens in 3 waves. The oldest wave was during the Great Depression. There were also waves after World War II and the Korean War. I think we need a fourth wave. Alternatively, E-Verify needs to apply to all jobs and all employers. Either way, millions of jobs would be opened up for the over 22 million Americans who are either unemployed or involuntarily employed only part-time. Sadly, most of these un/der employed Americans are experienced and loyal workers. Search by title for the PDF version of the recent article, "How Record Immigration Levels Robbed American High-Tech Workers of $10 Trillion" to learn more.

P.S. Note that Republican Chris Cannon lost his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives because of his illegal alien advocacy.

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Dave Francis (not verified) on October 12, 2012 4:49 PM

Is America going to remain responsible, for other countries dismal human rights records? Are we just going to keep on importing more and more poverty, stifling the honest immigrants that wait patiently for years on our doorstep? Is the U.S government ignored for decades a need for tracking visitors, or even intentionally cutting off funds for constructing the real double layer fence at the border, committed by the George Bush presidency under the 2006 secure Fence act. I often wonder if there is some secret pact between those authorities south of the border and our own agencies, which we will accept a certain amount of their desperate illegal migrants, to proliferate for farming and corporate entities.

When our government has determined that regions of the border are being held by the drug cartels and these criminals have remained immune by intervention by ICE or even our military and that our sovereign nation has been invaded; that ranchers and landowners are fearful for their families and are in constant stress and live under prison conditions. Then we have Obama’s Department of Justice continuously attacking states as Arizona, because they can least afford the hundreds of millions of dollars states are forced by the courts to pay for free medical care, education for the children of illegal aliens throughout this country. Hundreds of billions of dollars are literary extracted from taxpayer’s pockets, to pay for illegal aliens stealing into America with unborn babies to pay for their delivery, their education and public welfare cash payments.

The TEA PARTY “THE PEOPLES PARTY” has stepped up to the plate. The TEA PARTY OF ALL RELIGIOUS DENOMINATION, EVERY CLASS, EVERY RACE ARE FED UP AND FRUSTRATED WITH THESE FREE GIVEAWAYS. NOW AN ESTIMATED 41 MILLION TEA PARTY MEMBERS AND STILL GATHERING STEAM AND ARE OPENLY FLOWING INTO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND ARE READY TO TACKLE THE CORRUPTION IN BOTH PARTIES.

ODDLY ENOUGH THE LIBERAL JOURNALISTS IN THE MAINSTREAM PRESS THINK THE WHOLE MOVEMENT HAS DISSOLVED, AFTER THE MASSIVE CROWD THAT OVERWELMED WASHINGTON DC SOME YEARS AGO. WE ARE STILL HERE AND WILL BE CAREFULLY WATCHING THE VOTING PUBLIC IN NOVEMBER. WHEN 71 PERCENT OF LEGAL HISPANICS HAVE STATED THEY WANT PHOTO ID’s SHOULD SHOWN, TO PROOF WHO THEY ARE ACCORDING TO THE PEW HISPANIC CENTER.

The children of illegal aliens have been unaware of their status, caused by their criminal parents entering our country? The Mother should be held responsible and deported as they have cost for decades record amounts of taxpayers’ money. SO UNLESS A SIMPLE CHANGE TO 14th AMENDENT IS IMPOSED, BILLIONS OF DOLLARS THAT SHOULD BE GOING TO OUR OWN POOR, OUR OWN HOMELESS OUR OWN CITIZENS, INSTEAD OF BEING APPROPRIATED TO PAY FOR ILLEGAL ALIEN WELFARE.

Today there has been a remedy for them through President Obama’s executive preference, although it should have been voted on in the Congress. This inconceivable problem will never go away and will indeed get far worse unless Congress enacts the BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BILL. It is highly controversial and unless an amendment is forthcoming, the state treasuries will be forever drained. Pregnant mothers coming here with the deliberate plan to have their child on welfare and the hundreds of Billions of dollars extracted by inept federal laws of that says children born here automatically receive citizenship. The illegal alien parent is feeding from the welfare trough, without ever paying a cent into the fund. This can only escalate further as President Obama is encouraging illegal immigrants and migrants to come, by delivering free food stamps without any restrictions. Just look at California, THE SANCTUARY CITY STATE" Where Los Angeles city Administrator gave out the latest payout of the children of illegal alien parents. Two months and a hundred sixty million dollars later and now Los Angeles is pushing for another tax hike. This is incredulous-to let our lousy, incompetent federal government pay for all these illegal aliens in this border state. NO WONDER CALIFORNIA IS IN A DOWNWARD FISCAL SPIN?

Only the enactment to this amendment can stop this problem by making it official that only the children of at least one parent being a U.S. citizen. Also waiting for a vote in the House is mandatory E-verify “THE LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT” law to halt illegal aliens taking citizens and lawful resident’s jobs. Why this law sit’s dormant stands to show how many the politicians care about the legal workers, although this law has been carefully hidden from site by none other than Democrat majority leader Harry Reid. Why with 8.1 percent of Americans are jobless, why either the House or Senate refuses to bringing either of these laws to the HOUSE AND SENATE CHAMBERS.

Obviously the 47 percent mainstream Liberal-Communist-Marxist progressives will provide the ammunition to attack Romney, but they will stay silent about the pandering to the "Freeloaders" the scroungers, parasites and illegal aliens who live off the rest of us. Not forgetting that many in the percentage are the infirm and handicapped that needs a helping hand.

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BajaRat (not verified) on October 12, 2012 4:42 PM

Illegal aliens are criminals and parasites, one and all. Practically everything they do on U.S. soil is illegal. They need to be ferreted out, rounded up like cattle, punished for their numerous crimes, then booted back to whence they snuck in from with such extreme prejudice that they will never, ever think of violating our sovereignty again. Build a wall and deport 'em all. Enough is enough.

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