Latino bloggers wait for presidential candidates’ response to special survey on issues pertinent to Latino electorate

LatinaLista — Depending on the source, recent headlines have touted Obama and McCain of either “pandering” for the Latino vote or “courting” it.
Given that both men have been or will be appearing at national Latino or Latino-participant events (NALEO, LULAC, NCLR, UNITY 08), it’s obvious they both want to be seen as supporting Latino causes.

But do they really? Do they dare to make their true stands on the issues known before November 4, 2008?
Each claims that he has but while speeches touch on issues of interest to Latinos, in true political style, the issues are acknowledged but not explored. Talk with no substance.
How is a voter to know which candidate will act in her/his best interests if there is only vague reference to these issues.
That is what bothers many Latino voters and so a group of us Latino/a bloggers (CrossLeft, Culture Kitchen, Citizen Orange,Latino Politico, The Unapologetic Mexican, Migra Matters, Para Justicia y Libertad, Mamita Mala and Zuky) drafted a survey for the presidential candidates to fill out.
The survey would provide the substance lacking in the candidates’ speeches that Latino voters are looking for. Yet, it may reveal too much substance.
To date, almost three weeks has passed, and neither candidate has acknowledged the survey, let alone, filled it out.
So, the survey is being sent to both campaigns again — in the hopes that each candidate will show his sincerity in addressing issues pertinent to the Latino electorate and deliver substance with the rhetoric.

CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE
Name:
Party Affiliation:
Address:
Home Phone:
Campaign Phone Office:
Office Sought/Opponents in:
If you are a State candidate, please indicate your State Registration Number:
The Sanctuary is a multi-issue organization working in the service of human rights, human reasoning and progressive discussion. Therefore it is critical for us to understand your position on the following issues. Please give specific answers to the questions and answer them as thoroughly as possible. Please type your answers. Use additional sheets as necessary.
1. Could you please articulate what you think are the most pressing issues for the U.S. immigrant community, at home AND abroad, and how you would hope to address those issues as President?
2. Do you support comprehensive immigration reform?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
3. What policy conditions would comprehensive immigration reform have
to meet in order for you to support it? Please be specific?
4. Do you support the establishment of an expanded guest worker program?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
5. Do you support the expansion and construction of a virtual border along the U.S./Mexico border?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
6. Do you support the switch from family based immigration standards to
the merit based system put forth in the last round of Senate CIR?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
7. Do you support the “touchback” requirements of previous comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) legislation that would require undocumented immigrants to return to their countries of origin in order to normalize their status?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
8. Would you support the addition of funding for stricter enforcement of
general labor standards such as wage and hour or safety regulations as
part of CIR legislation?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
9. Would you support an increase in the cap of low-skilled
employment-based green cards issued each year from it’s current level of
5000?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
10. Would you favor raising the 65,000 cap on high-skilled H-1B temporary work visas, in light of the fact that in the last two years, H-1B visas were quickly filled in a matter of days?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
11a. If so, would you also favor limiting the number of H-1B professionals a company can hire?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
11b. If so, would you also favor limiting the number of H-1B professionals employment brokers are allowed to recruit?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
11 c. If so, would you favor including meaningful prevailing wage requirements keyed to the Service Contract Act and Davis-Bacon Act?
Yes No
Please explain
12. Do you have a position on providing materials concerning health care
and public benefits programs in languages other than English?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
13. Do you support lifetime eligibility for Supplemental Security Income
(SSI) for disabled and/or elderly refugees and asylees who are eligible for
SSI except for a lack of U.S. citizenship?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position
14. What are your feelings on immigrant detention?
15. Do you support family detention centers?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
16. Do you support private companies profiting of of immigrant detention?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
17. Do you support the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act, the bill that would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop procedures to ensure adequate medical care for all detainees held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
18. Do you support the United American Families Act, the bill that would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow permanent partners of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, including same-sex partners, to obtain permanent residency?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
19. Do you support the community service requirement of previous DREAM Act legislation that would grant provisional (conditional) legal residency to immigrant graduates who perform 910 hours of volunteer community service?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
20. Would you support an immediate moratorium on community and work site raids by ICE?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
21. Do you approve of ICE’s use of excessive force to conduct immigration raids as seen recently in Postiville, Iowa?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
22. Do you support the Families First Immigration Enforcement Act, the bill that would provide for safe and humane policies and procedures pertaining to the arrest, detention, and processing of aliens in immigration enforcement operations?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
23. Would you support the incorporation of requirements that would tie
both future economic aid and trade agreements to substantive benchmarks
in sender nations that would alleviate some of the economic and
humanitarian conditions that foster continued migration?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
24. Would you renegotiate the NAFTA last phase that just went into
effect that lifts restrictions on more US agricultural products,
particularly poultry, imported into Mexico?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
25. Do you support cancelling or renegotiating NAFTA?”
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
26. Do you support providing subsidies for corn-based ethanol?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
27. Do you support the farm bill, more specifically the agricultural
subsidies it contains?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
28. Do you support a restructuring of trade-distorting US farm subsidies?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
29. Do you support a significant shift in subsidies to help farmers adopt conservation and renewable energy practices on farms?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
30. Do you support Plan Colombia (the Plan that was meant to combat the principal threat to the nation’s political and economic elite: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)) even though after closer examination of Plan Colombia, it has been revealed that the Plan states that public companies and banks are to be privatized leading to massive layoffs and further increasing unemployment at a time when cutbacks in government spending has removed any vestiges of providing a social safety net for those affected?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
31. Do you support Plan Mexico, which has been considered to be a duplicated of Plan Colombia, which has entrenched violence and corruption in Colombia while failing to reduce drug flow?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
32.Do you support canceling or renegotiating Plan Mexico?
Yes No
Please explain.
How long have you held this position?
33. What would you do to address the racist and nativist rhetoric that is becoming mainstreamed and that is tied to a rising crime wave fueled by the same sentiment?
34. What are you going to do to take a more global approach to the
issue of migration?
35. What would you do to provide opportunities in the countries that
migrants are fleeing from?
36. How do you address the overwhelming amount of money the U.S. federal
government spends on defense and military expenditures, at home and
abroad, and would you see to it that less money is spent on
militarization and more money is spent on social programs?
37. What leadership have you taken on immigration issues, including but
not limited to the issues addressed in this questionnaire?
38. On what immigration issues will you take leadership?