Thread: CA: Newsom touts immigrants' rights in speech at Stanford

Newsom touts immigrants' rights in speech at Stanford
By Will Oremus


Daily News Staff Writer

Posted: 08/14/2009 11:16:48 PM PDT


Gubernatorial candidate and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on Friday staked out liberal ground on immigration and budget cuts in a speech to hundreds of union workers at Stanford University.

"Do I support a driver's license for everybody? The answer is yes," Newsom said to a burst of applause from members of SEIU United Service Workers West, who gathered at the university for a two-day leadership convention. He touted San Francisco's municipal identification cards, which are available to illegal immigrants as well as citizens, as a model for the state to build on.

Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate railed against Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent use of an executive order to impose furloughs on state employees, calling the move an "unconscionable" grab from hard-working Californians. Newsom suggested the furloughs and other tough cuts could have been avoided by raising the state's tobacco tax and imposing a new oil tax.

The speech was an early appeal to organized labor in Newsom's Democratic primary campaign against state Attorney General Jerry Brown. Brown, who has led in early polls though he has not yet formally declared his candidacy, is scheduled to address the same union convention today at 9:30 a.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Palo Alto.

Newsom appeared to connect with his audience on several points, especially his support for immigrants' rights and his pledge to use his connections with big businesses to push for better working conditions for their contracted employees. Many of United Service Workers West's 40,000 members in California are employed by contractors on behalf of large private firms, such as the recently unionized Securitas security guards who work at Kaiser Permanente.

"I heard him be very bold today," said Sylvia Ruiz, the union's political director. "I think for our immigrant members to hear him come out so vociferously in support of driver's licenses" was significant, she added.

Newsom also touched on other hot-button issues related to immigration, including a longstanding San Francisco policy not to undocumented residents for reporting crimes or using city services.

"We are a sanctuary city proudly, we have stood on the principle of the sanctuary city proudly, and if you think we haven't, listen to Lou Dobbs talk about our city," he said, referring to the CNN commentator who has criticized liberal immigration policies such as San Francisco's.

Newsom sought to distinguish himself Friday as a candidate unafraid to take tough stands, saying other "Democrats are running away from these issues" because they're "scared to death about the politics." He said he wouldn't back down on controversial causes such as universal health care.

He also wasn't shy in his praise for unions, saying a rise in income disparity nationally since World War II was the direct result of "the decline of labor representation in this country." Asked after the talk if courting the labor vote could hurt him at a time when some are blaming big union contracts for the state's budget problems, Newsom said he thinks that blame is misplaced.

"I'm not courting labor," he added. "I come from a labor background. To me it's just intuitive."

Union president Mike Garcia said he thought Newsom's speech went over well.

"What I saw tonight is that he definitely has the charisma and the ability to move our members and to speak to their issues in a very strong way," Garcia said. "He inspired people today. But he has a huge job ahead of him. What he did here tonight he's going to have to take out to every corner of the state."

Terry White, a steamfitter at Stanford who is on his local union's negotiating team, said he liked Newsom's goal of universal health care in California. But he said he wasn't ready to declare his support for the mayor until he heard from Brown as well.

Also withholding judgment was Victoria Marquez, a janitor from Los Angeles who made the trip up to the Bay Area for the convention.

"He said all the right things," Marquez said in Spanish. "But with a lot of people who are politicians, you can't really count on it until you see it in action."

www.mercurynews.com

"He said all the right things," Marquez said in Spanish. "But with a lot of people who are politicians, you can't really count on it until you see it in action."

...and this is something we can ALL relate to! No matter what language we speak...

Interesting the hospital security guards protecting the medical records and abusable drugs are represented and selected by a union which feels their members should be free to lie about who and what they are.

Just what Californians need is more taxes and the pursuit of ILLEGAL ALIENS getting more benefits and the rights of a citizen in the USA

He touted San Francisco's municipal identification cards, which are available to illegal immigrants as well as citizens, as a model for the state to build on.

Newsom sought to distinguish himself Friday as a candidate unafraid to take tough stands, saying other "Democrats are running away from these issues" because they're "scared to death about the politics." He said he wouldn't back down on controversial causes such as universal health care.

Newsom suggested the furloughs and other tough cuts could have been avoided by raising the state's tobacco tax and imposing a new oil tax