Jill Stein on Immigration Green Party presidential nominee; Former Challenger for MA Governor

Undocumented immigration massively spiked after NAFTA

STEIN: First, let's be clear that our jobs took a nosedive because Wall Street crashed the economy, because of Wall Street waste, fraud and abuse. And our jobs went overseas due to NAFTA and other free trade agreements, which Barack Obama has expanded. So, in fact, you know, it's not immigrants that have caused problems in our economy; it's, rather, this predatory economic policies fostered by an economic and political elite. In fact, immigrants did not come to this country lured by jobs. The spike in undocumented immigrants occurred, massively spiked, after NAFTA basically put millions of small farmers out of business, and people were forced to migrate here as economic refugees in order to feed their families.

Extend DREAM Act beyond age 30

STEIN: We actually want to provide a welcoming and legal path to the immigrants who have always been the backbone of our economy, the backbone of the diversity that makes this country great. And while the president took a very small step forward, this is a very inadequate step to simply provide two-year worker permits to the DREAMers, and basically they run into a brick wall at age 30. We need to actually provide a welcoming path and legal path to citizenship for the undocumented Americans, who are critical parts of our economy and of our communities.

Provide a legal path to citizenship for immigrant residents

Redirect the trillions wasted on Wall Street, war & tax subsidies for the wealthy to...
• Provide a legal path to citizenship for the immigrant residents that keep our economy going. Stop deportations that tear immigrant families apart.
• End unemployment by investing in green jobs.
• Obama's 2011 jobs plan is even smaller than in 2008--which hardly touched the problem! Jill's proposal creates eight times more jobs and ends the Bush/Obama recession.
• Forgive student debt. Create tuition-free higher education. Obama's plan merely adjusts payment plans for 4% of students and allows the student debt crisis to grow worse. It leaves college as unaffordable as ever.
• Create health care as a human right through a Medicare for all system that provides quality comprehensive care, preserves patient choice and puts people before profits.

End the war on immigrants; end "secure communities" cruelty

The Green New Deal will end the war on immigrants--including the cruel, so-called "secure communities" program-- which is terrorizing millions of Americans, both citizens and non-citizen immigrants, on no basis other than their perceived immigration status.

Undocumented immigrants are critical component of economy

A: We are a nation of immigrants--and immigrants are a critical component of our economy. In Alabama, their tomato industry collapsed to the tune of billions of dollars when they passed very harsh anti-immigrant laws and the immigrants left town. That state learned the hard way how valuable the immigrant sector was to their economy. And that's true nationally. The real solution is:

• A) Fix the economic problems that are driving waves of immigrants into this country, initiated by our own trade policies.
• B) Then, yes, providing a legal pathway to citizenship to the immigrants who are an integral part of our economy and our culture.

No pathway to citizenship for criminals; open to all others

A: I don't want to have a pathway to citizenship for drug dealers or criminals, of course. But we should fight for human rights for all immigrants. The Canadian border is a reasonable model for what our border should look like -- at least, the Canadian border before the modern [post-9-11] era.