Thread: ‘English only’ fight erupts at a Las Vegas caucus site

‘English only’ fight erupts at a Las Vegas caucus site when Dolores Huerta offers to translate

Published February 21, 2016 Fox News Latino

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  BEVERLY HILLS, CA - DECEMBER 12: Labor leader Dolores Huerta attends the 2015 Annual Spirit Of Liberty Awards Dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on December 12, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images) (2015 MICHAEL KOVAC)
  

Veteran civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, an avid supporter of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, is accusing Bernie Sanders campaign staffers of preventing her from providing Spanish-language translation to voters who needed it at a Las Vegas caucus location during Saturday’s Democratic primary.

Huerta, who co-founded the National Farmworkers Association with late Cesar Chavez in the 1960s, told Univision reporter Fernando Peinado: “I don’t feel that Sanders’ people respect our community. They stopped the people from having translation [services] in something as important as these caucuses that are taking place. They are showing that they don’t respect us.”

According to several reports, Huerta offered to help serve as an interpreter at the Harrah’s Las Vegas Hotel and Casino caucus site because many caucus-goers were workers who spoke only Spanish.

However, when she got on stage, where the voting was taking place, many in the crowd started yelling “No, no, no!” She told Huffington Post that they were Sanders supporters and were also shouting “English only.”

“That is completely against the spirit of everything that we’re working for,” Huerta said.

"To deprive these voters at this crucial time of having a translation of what was going on – this is something they need in order to know what's taking place."

She told ThinkProgress that a Sanders supporter went up on stage as well and she “suggested we both translate.” However, the moderator decided no translation would be used.

A video of the event - starting around the 54-min mark - shows the moderator asking if anyone speaks Spanish. When Huerta gets on stage, it’s difficult to make out the crowd is yelling -- yet

“No, No!” is clearly heard.

The moderator asks the audience to stop shouting and says that other Spanish speakers in the crowd can point out if Huerta says anything that pro-Clinton. Eventually he decided “we’re going forward in English only.”

“The room was divided with the Hillary people on one side and the Bernie people on the other,” Huerta told ThinkProgress. “It was really unfortunate, because there were many Spanish-speaking voters, the casino workers. We wanted to make it more comfortable for them, so they could know what was going on.”

The 85-year-old clarified the exchange on Twitter.

“I offered to translate & Bernie supporters chanted English only! We fought too long & hard to be silenced Si Se Puede!” she tweeted.

The exchange went viral on Saturday night after actress America Ferrera, a vocal supporter of Clinton, also took to Twitter to speak out about the incident.

“Harrah's casino site- Bernie supporters chant "English-only" to stop civil rights leader @DoloresHuerta from providing Spanish translation,” she wrote.

Symone Sanders, the campaign secretary for the Sanders campaign, told CNN that the senator’s campaign was about “bringing people together.”

"As the senator has said, this campaign is about bringing people together not dividing them," she said. "We expect our supporters to be respectful of all people and don't condone anything otherwise."

Actress Susan Sarandon, who is a Sanders support, disputed the accounts that a Sanders supporter yelled the “English only” remark.

“@AmericaFerrera I was there. Nobody from Bernie's side said English only. Moderator did when no neutral translator was found@DoloresHuerta,” she wrote.

This is not the first time Huerta has spoken out against Sanders. In an interview with Fox News Latino this week, Huerta said she was supporting Clinton because Sanders has not been progressive enough when it comes to immigration.

“Bernie Sanders really hurt us on immigration reform,” Huerta told FNL. “In 2007 we had a great opportunity to get immigration reform passed. Sen. John McCain was at the table, Sen. Ted Kennedy was pushing that immigration reform bill and we could have gotten that bill out of the Senate and into the House and passed immigration reform.”

“Bernie Sanders came out against it,” she said. “He didn’t call me. He didn’t call all of us who have been working on immigration reform for the last 40 years. I don’t know who he listened to, but that showed me he wasn’t really paying attention.”

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/pol.../?intcmp=hpbt1

How in the heck do they even know what's going on if they don't speak English? Oh never mind I know the answer they just listen to the bias on Univision.

Only US citizens, not green card holders of foreign nationals can vote in Federal elections. The requirement for citizenship is STILL the ability to read, write and speak English with exceptions given to people over the age of 55. So, if they are adults under the age of 55 and they don't speak English, chances are they are foreign nationals voting illegally which is a felony. The unfortunate part is that many of the illegals coming here do not know how to read of write in any language and only know what they are told by "handlers" like Huerta. They are loaded up in busses, taken to the polls and told that they can vote. I believe that it is the same tactic used by Harry Reid in 2010.

Huerta, who co-founded the National Farmworkers Association with late Cesar Chavez in the 1960s, told Univision reporter Fernando Peinado: “I don’t feel that Sanders’ people respect our community. They stopped the people from having translation [services] in something as important as these caucuses that are taking place. They are showing that they don’t respect us.”

The initial disrespect is to the US and its citizens because these people should be able to understand and speak English at this point. To not embrace your new countries' language is disrespectful (so put the horse before the cart Ms. Huerta). Americans respect legal immigrants and would expect that they would speak and understand the native language at some point, especially if they have truly earned the privilege to vote. Presuming one drives, how does one drive safely if they do not understand the language?

According to several reports, Huerta offered to help serve as an interpreter at the Harrah’s Las Vegas Hotel and Casino caucus site because many caucus-goers were workers who spoke only Spanish.

workers + Spanish speaking only = illegal alien. Everyone has probably figured this out by now.