DACA – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

The Truth About Lee Zeldin’s Record

David Posnett — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 14:37:35 +0000

October 1, 2018 by Jacquelyn Gavron and Amy Turner

You deserve the facts about your representative, but you won’t get them from Lee Zeldin. Here’s the truth about his record.

OPPOSES GUN SAFETY

After Parkland, Zeldin said, “This tragedy could have and should’ve been prevented.” But he voted against bills to prevent them—background checks and assault rifle ban.
Zeldin’s received $61,181 from the NRA, more than any NY rep. No wonder he co-sponsored its pet “concealed carry” act overriding our laws and letting out-of-state guns flow into NY.
Zeldin voted against a bill banning firearms in airports and prohibiting terrorists on the FBI’s no-fly list to buy guns in the U.S.

ANTI-LGBTQ

Zeldin voted against preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity
Said he believes marriage is between a man and a woman and voted against the Marriage Equality Act of New York
Supported Trump’s rescinding Obama’s rule on transgender bathroom use and all but said he supported Trump’s ban on transgender people in the military.

DISHONORS VETERANS

Zeldin’s vote to repeal the ACA would leave 340,000 veterans covered by the Medicaid expansion without any health care coverage.
Did little to address equipment and infrastructure issues at Northport VA Medical Center, which serves approximately 30,000 of the 130,000 veterans on L.I.
Zeldin received $20,000 from Koch Industries, which has been funding VA privatization PACS including Concerned Veterans for America.

ETHICAL LAPSES

Zeldin was sworn in to the House on Jan. 6, 2015. That same day, he voted to limit the power of the House and Senate ethics committees to investigate members.
Zeldin repeatedly voted against investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election–
Although use of private jets for routine travel violates federal rules, Zeldin voted against protecting whistleblowers who disclose on improper use of aircrafts by government officials.

ANTI-IMMIGRATION

Supported Trump’s repeal of the DACA, or Dream Act, which protected from deportation those brought to the U.S. as children
Defended Trump’s comment about immigrants from “shithole countries” and voted to require state/local governments to comply with ICE requests to detain undocumented immigrants
Voted to block federal funding for states and localities with “sanctuary” laws on immigration.

We Are Not Stuck With Zeldin

David Posnett — Sat, 26 May 2018 13:33:59 +0000

Fight Back

East Hampton

May 21, 2018

To the Editor,

I want to live in an America that strives to be the best it can be, an America that does not look backward with blinders on and pine for illusory “good old days,” but an America that looks forward with energy and determination, and the collective will to find solutions to the problems we face.

Immigration, climate change, and gun safety are just some of the challenges confronting us. I have no doubt this country is up to the task, but we need smart, dedicated people working toward common goals, led by a president who is committed to those goals, and a Congress that has the political backbone to do its duty.

While there is no shortage of dedicated people, we are saddled with a president who thinks that building a wall, burning more coal, and kowtowing to the N.R.A. will make America great again, and a Republican-majority Congress that rubber-stamps whatever he does.

We may be stuck with the president (for now), but we are not stuck with Lee Zeldin, who has voted to defund DACA (in 2015), allow coal mining companies to dump waste into streams, and who has received more money in N.R.A. donations than any other current New York representative.

If you want a representative who will fight back against Trump’s regressive policies, vote for a Democrat in November.

Sincerely,
CAROL DEISTLER

Zeldin: Trump Apologist Extraordinaire

David Posnett — Mon, 14 May 2018 16:31:52 +0000

Published as a Letter to the Editor in The East Hampton Star, 5/10/18

National Disgrace

East Hampton

May 7, 2018

To The Editor:

With his refusal to release his tax returns, taunting of Gold Star families, ridicule of P.O.W.s, derision of the press, attacks on the F.B.I., threats to jail political opponents, demonization of immigrants, defense of neo-Nazis, disrespect for women, and so much else, Donald Trump has demolished many of the standards of decency citizens of this country once expected from their president.

Now he is pushing America toward a full-fledged constitutional crisis. In desperation to hide whatever it is he is hiding, Trump is signaling that he’ll pardon witnesses who may implicate him in crimes, refusing to testify in the investigation into Russian election interference, and maneuvering to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the leadership of the Department of Justice. His lawyers are even suggesting that because he’s the president he cannot commit obstruction of justice, and that he doesn’t have to comply with any subpoenas issued.

If President Trump is allowed to flout the law, as he has already flouted propriety, the safeguards that have protected America from tyranny for over 230 years will be destroyed.

It is a national disgrace that the Republican-controlled Congress is abetting and even encouraging the president to defy the rule of law. But it is a local disgrace that Lee Zeldin, Trump apologist extraordinaire, is our representative in that Congress. With his obsequious defense of anything Trump does or says, Zeldin is mocking all the law-abiding citizens of his district.

In November, the First Congressional District needs to toss Zeldin out of office, and vote for a Democratic representative who will defend our democracy.

Sincerely,

CAROL DEISTLER

Strongman Trump

David Posnett — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 05:21:06 +0000

Webster: “Strongman: a person who uses power or authority in a cruel, unjust, or harmful way”

On Sep. 6, 2017, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, was rescinded by Pres. Donald Trump. Congress was given 6 months to fix DACA. Now Trump is asking for measures to curtail legal immigration, specially from countries where the population is not white and for funding for his wall, in exchange for a DACA fix.

At the top of his demands are 2 euphemisms: “the lottery” and “chain migration”.

“The Lottery” (the green-card lottery) issues up to 50,000 visas a year to people from dozens of countries: 5% of the roughly 1 million green cards issued annually. The aim is to mix up the nation’s melting pot. The 95% other green cards are given out based on an employer or a family sponsor. There is a long and tedious background check system in place for all green card applicants.

US immigration quotas have been around for over 100 years and we need not be proud of this. The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the USA through an origins quota. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia.

Even when you have your green card, there is another long waiting period for naturalization. I waited 26 years while working as a doctor in the US for naturalization.

In the context of Trump’s ‘shithole countries’ comment, one has to interpret his rescinding of “the lottery” system as an attempt to favor white versus non-white immigration, a blatant racial move applauded by the likes of David Duke and documented by his tweet that “Americans are Dreamers too”. Lee Zeldin approves!

“Chain Migration” – U.S. citizens and green card holders can petition for a spouse and unmarried children to join them in the USA. But no one can petition for an aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, in-law relative or grandparent, according to USCIS. There is a long queue for certain relatives seeking to come through family sponsorship. For brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens, the average waiting period for a visa is over 13 years.

The term ‘chain migration’ is used in the history books to describe the phenomenon of one family migrating to a new country (usually because of persecution or economic disaster), and then, when they find the new location to be safe and conducive to prosperity, they signal their extended family, or even their entire community, to join them. All immigrants to the US have followed this pattern, the Italians, the Irish, the Germans, including the Trump family!

So why all the hoopla? Because Trump wants to stir up emotion among his base. To this end he uses stories of individuals who entered this country via the lottery program and that committed atrocities, like the Uzbek terrorist’s attack in Lower Manhattan on Oct. 31, 2017.

This brings me back to DACA. Just like rescinding the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), rescinding DACA is quite unpopular, regardless of your politics. In the case of CHIP, the democrats prevailed and the program was saved. In both cases, Trump is/was trying to hold Democrats hostage: either you vote for funds for my wall, and my changes to legal immigration or you lose DACA. And for good measure Republicans (and that includes FOX news of course) will tar Dems with the responsibility of having doomed DACA!

Yes, these are strongman tactics and they are “cruel, unjust, and harmful”.

Zeldin has this to say: “My priority will always unapologetically remain with fighting for the people following the laws, rather than the ones breaking them.”

Uhm? A 5 year old child brought to this country (and now many years later a DACA recipient) was breaking the law? What does Zeldin expect? Is the 5 year old from Ecuador supposed to tell his/her parents “I am not going with you because you are breaking the US laws”. I say “Lee Zeldin, take a moment and think about your own kids.” This is a tragedy and we, as a nation, are complicit: these families were not prevented from coming and this has been occuring over many years and many administrations both Republican and Democratic. For 8 years that Obama was president the Republicans fought tooth and nail to prevent comprehensive immigration reform. Now they have inherited the mess. And their proposed solution: strongman tactics that are “cruel, unjust, and harmful”.

Sources:

Here’s what you need to know about the diversity visa lottery program

Jeff Sessions announces DACA program to be rescinded

How the United States Immigration System Works

Donald Trump’s misleading claim about chain migration, unlimited sponsorship of distant relatives

The Dark Side of SOTU

David Posnett — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 18:47:38 +0000

Yoda, we need you!

So perhaps you think that President Trump’s State of the Union was ‘presidential’ and his speach reached across the isle? If so, you would be joining a majority of viewers according to some polls.

But here is the dark side!

David Duke comments on the SOTU speach:

And David Duke is not alone:

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) invited notorious right-wing internet troll and Holocaust denier Charles Johnson to be his guest at President Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, according to a Daily Beast report.

Gaetz and Johnson gave conflicting accounts of how Johnson came to be Gaetz’s guest. The Florida congressman, who has played a leading role in pushing the conspiracy theory that the “deep state” is out to undermine Trump, said he doesn’t know Johnson. Gaetz said Johnson used one of his SOTU tickets only after his father fell ill and couldn’t go. But Johnson told the Daily Beast that he and Gaetz were introduced by another member of Congress, and that he “took Gaetz’s invitation” because “he’s into stuff on the issues that I care about.”

Johnson was permanently banned from Twitter after he posted a tweet in 2015 soliciting donations from people to “take out” activist DeRay McKesson, who at the time was in the news because of his support for Black Lives Matter.

On Reddit, Johnson once argued that the number of Jews in the Holocaust was much less than the accepted number of six million. He also questioned the existence of gas chambers, writing, “I agree with David Cole about Auschwitz and the gas chambers not being real. Why were their swimming pools there if it was a death camp?”

On GotNews, he’s referred to an alleged mob of Hispanic men protesting a Trump rally as “savages,”has repeatedly referred to Black Live Matter supporters as “thugs” and posted numerous stories alleging criminal acts by people he claims were affiliated with BLM. He’s also appeared on a podcast hosted by The Right Stuff, a proudly and profoundly anti-Semitic show hosted by white nationalist Mike Enoch.

It’s not surprising that Johnson’s fondness for conspiracy theories wouldn’t bother Gaetz. Earlier this week, Gaetz joined the show of America’s foremost conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, to tout a conspiracy theory about purported “deep state” efforts to undermine President Trump.

Are these your bed fellows Rep. Lee Zeldin?

Welcoming refugees brings unexpected economic benefits

David Posnett — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 14:13:38 +0000

The Trump Administration continues to govern with a blind eye toward inconvenient facts and analyses.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s top white nationalist advisor in the White House, reportedly rejected a study proving refugees contribute significantly more to U.S. revenue than they cost. From The New York Times:

Trump administration officials, under pressure from the White House to provide a rationale for reducing the number of refugees allowed into the United States next year, rejected a study by the Department of Health and Human Services that found that refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues over the past decade than they cost.

The draft report, which was obtained by The New York Times, contradicts a central argument made by advocates of deep cuts in refugee totals as President Trump faces an Oct. 1 deadline to decide on an allowable number. The issue has sparked intense debate within his administration as opponents of the program, led by Mr. Trump’s chief policy adviser, Stephen Miller, assert that continuing to welcome refugees is too costly and raises concerns about terrorism.

The leaked study showed refugees hugely contribute to the U.S. economy:

The internal study, which was completed in late July but never publicly released, found that refugees “contributed an estimated $269.1 billion in revenues to all levels of government” between 2005 and 2014 through the payment of federal, state and local taxes. “Overall, this report estimated that the net fiscal impact of refugees was positive over the 10-year period, at $63 billion.”

The NYT reports it’s not clear who rejected the report, but it has Stephen Miller’s xenophobic, anti-immigrant, white nationalist fingerprints all over it:

It was not clear who in the administration decided to keep the information out of the final report. An internal email, dated Sept. 5 and sent among officials from government agencies involved in refugee issues, said that “senior leadership is questioning the assumptions used to produce the report.” A separate email said that Mr. Miller had requested a meeting to discuss the report. The Times was shown the emails on condition that the sender not be identified. Mr. Miller personally intervened in the discussions on the refugee cap to ensure that only the costs — not any fiscal benefit — of the program were considered, according to two people familiar with the talks.

Earlier this year, The Business Insider published data supporting the rejected administration report. A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows refugees provide a net contribution to the economy through the taxes they pay over time, countering the notion that they are a drag on the economy due to a reliance on social benefits.

The report from Notre Dame economists William Evans and Daniel Fitzgerald finds that “over their first 20 years in the United States, refugees who arrived as adults aged 18-45 contributed more in taxes than they received in relocation benefits and other public assistance.” The Notre Dame study drew on State Department data to create a sample of 20,000 refugees who entered the country between 1990 and 2014.

The authors also find that “the younger the refugees were when they resettled in America, the more likely they were to catch up with their native-born peers educationally and economically.”

This chart captures their findings, showing that refugees on average cross the threshold from net beneficiaries to net contributors around the 9th year after migration.

NBER

The research also found that refugees who arrived before the age of 14 had, by ages 19-24, graduated from high school at the same rates as American youth. By ages 23-28, those refugees displayed the same college graduation rates as the US-born population.

“Refugees who arrived as children of any age have much higher school enrollment rates than U.S.-born respondents of the same age,” the research finds.

The US spends an average of $15,148 in relocation costs and $92,217 in social benefits over an adult refugee’s first 20 years here, the NBER said, citing the Notre Dame report. Over that period, the average adult refugee pays $128,689 in taxes — $21,324 more than the benefits received.

Trump’s DACA decision could strip thousands in New York of Medicaid coverage

David Posnett — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 14:57:01 +0000

When President Barack Obama created the DACA program in 2012, thousands of New Yorkers who were brought to the United States at a young age were suddenly eligible for Medicaid. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

The Trump administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program could strip thousands of New Yorkers of their health insurance, a consequence unique to New York that could focus the debate in Albany when the Legislature returns in January.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the Obama-era program, which granted legal status to approximately 800,000 children brought to the United States by their parents, would begin to unwind in six months.

That provides Congress a brief window to solve one of the nation’s most divisive issues. Should Congress fail, New York could face its own difficult choice: whether to continue providing Medicaid to the DACA population.

There are approximately 42,000 DACA recipients in New York. The vast majority are at risk for losing their job-based health insurance if they lose their legal right to work. The Department of Health could not say how many DACA recipients currently rely on Medicaid but estimates are between 5,000 and 10,000.

New York is one of the few states that provides health insurance to non-citizens, or people residing under the color of law (PRUCOL). That’s because of a 2001 Court of Appeals ruling that said denying Medicaid to any legal resident violated the equal protection clauses of the New York and U.S. constitutions. As a result, immigrants in New York who are not citizens, but are living in the state lawfully, are entitled to Medicaid.

When President Barack Obama created the DACA program in 2012, thousands of New Yorkers who were brought to the United States at a young age were suddenly eligible for Medicaid. It also allowed them to pay taxes.

Because the federal government does not recognize the state court’s decision, New York, which usually receives a 50 percent match for Medicaid expenses, pays the full cost for insuring these immigrants.

If they lose their DACA status and revert to being undocumented immigrants in the eyes of the law, they may also lose their right to Medicaid.

Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives for the Community Service Society and a co-founder of Health Care For All New York, said the status of these immigrants is unclear.

She pointed to Trump’s statement, which said these DACA recipients would not be a priority for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That may mean they are still residing under the color of law because they are not under immediate threat of deportation.

It’s a bit of a legal stretch, but even if the law isn’t on her side, she said, Gov. Andrew Cuomo should continue to have the state Medicaid program cover DACA recipients.

“I would advocate they be covered under state-only Medicaid,” she said.

Will they?

“That’s the $64,000 question,” she said.

Cuomo’s office did not immediately say whether the state would extend coverage to DACA recipients who lost their protected status. The Department of Health did release a statement, saying Trump’s decision “not only displaces roughly 42,000 innocent New Yorkers whose young lives are intertwined in the very fabric of our communities, it jeopardizes access to affordable health care for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who call America home. New York State believes it has a legal and moral obligation to exhaust every available avenue to protect immigrants and their families by providing comprehensive access to health care, regardless of circumstance.”

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, a Democrat from Manhattan and chair of the health committee, said the Assembly “will do whatever is necessary to fill gaps caused by federal action.”

“New York has for years provided health coverage for many undocumented immigrants using State-only dollars, including Child Health Plus coverage for children regardless of immigration status,” Gottfried said in an email. “We will not change this regardless of Federal policy.”

Presumably, this would mean helping to insure those who lose their employer-sponsored coverage and need Medicaid. In New York that would mean the state could potentially fund Medicaid for all 42,000 DACA-status immigrants.

Rep. Tom Reed, a Republican from western New York, said Trump was “very wise” to recognize that DACA is not something that can be done by executive order.

“That which is done by the pen can be undone by the pen,” said Reed, who favors a legislative solution that protects children brought here by their parents.

But if that effort fails, Reed had reservations about the state picking up the Medicaid tab, given its already sizable Medicaid budget, which Reed called “mind boggling.”

The problem, he said, is how to draw the line. How can the state award Medicaid to some undocumented immigrants but not all? And if it is offered to all, then how can the state afford to cover them?

“From my perspective, if Albany wants to do that, I’ll defer to the state,” Reed said. “But they really should let folks know what they are doing in terms of expanding the program.”

While the state might have to cover more people, Benjamin drew a distinction between the DACA population and other undocumented immigrants. The DACA group, she said, has already made themselves known to ICE, further bolstering the argument the state could make that they are residing under color of law, while other undocumented immigrants are not.

“It is the state who decides who is PRUCOL and who is not,” she said.