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In an interview with the former Maryland governor, Martin O’Malley, that appeared in The Guardian there are some notable claims that I haven't heard of till now. For example, this part refers to Bernie Sanders (emphasis mine):

Here’s a guy who has been a kind of stalwart of the National Rifle Association, a man who said immigrants steal our jobs right up until he ran for president, a guy who said the sound of John Kennedy’s voice made him nauseous.

These claims are supported by some links to other pages on the internet. This article points to Bernie's mixed views on gun control and this Buzzfeed article backs the claim about Kennedy. But Bernie's views about immigrants, at least in the form that is reflected by O'Malley and another Buzzfeed article seem hard to believe.

Question: Did Sanders claim that immigrants steal the jobs of American citizens?

Evan Carroll
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    @Oddthinking I strongly disagree with your edit. But it appears that you're the boss (zipping mouth emoji) –  Feb 02 '20 at 14:46
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    @Oddthinking I strongly agree with your edit. But it appears that only one comment disagreeing with it but gaining upvotes might give the wrong impression here. Anyone up to flagging both comments here for obsoleteness has my approval as well. – LangLаngС Feb 04 '20 at 01:04
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    @LangLangC I get the impression that the upvotes for my comment is merely due to its anti-establishment tone! Regardless of the fact that no disrespect was intended, I think not deleting the comment is the best way to reflect the original intention of the OP as well, while keeping the site up to its standards –  Feb 04 '20 at 04:47
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    The reason for the objection wasn't given, so it was hard to defend my change or have my mind changed. I wanted to avoid degenerating into opinion-based arguments of what it meant to have a dramatic change in the Sanders's views, and in unprovable arguments about Sanders's motivations. That is better at Politics.SE. I focused the question on something that could be answered with evidence (admittedly only in one direction). – Oddthinking Feb 04 '20 at 07:35
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    @polfosol - editing is a nightmare, but it is true that the purpose of this site is very simply (1) you type out an assertion made somewhere by a significant source (that is to say, by the NY Times, Fox News, or whatever) and (2) answerers try to determine if the assertion is actually true or not. Thus, your further "personal question" ("did Bernie change his mind") has nothing to do with this site (ask that on politcs, history or whatever). I guess that is why Odd Edited. The only question (for this site) is, "did he say it, or, not". – Fattie Feb 04 '20 at 18:52
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    See also other similarities with Trump on related matters, in particular protectionism in trade https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/jul/27/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-he-and-bernie-sanders-are-very-s/ @Oddthinking: speculating about the internal motivation of people is also off topic on politics SE (there's even a dedicated close reasons for that issue there). – Fizz Feb 04 '20 at 21:51
  • @Fizz: Thank you for the heads up. – Oddthinking Feb 05 '20 at 01:08
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    This post is begging for clarification. Are we answering whether Sanders literally used the word steal to describe opportunities going to immigrants, or are we trying to determine whether Sanders said something similar in meaning? This is a key point in delivering an unbiased answer, because, its trivial here to deliberately choose the exact, literal phrasing of the statement and answer that no, he didn't use the word "steal", while obfuscating the actual and opposite point Sanders made that immigrants do put pressure on the job market. – user2647513 Feb 05 '20 at 21:19

2 Answers2

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A July 2015 interview (at 5:54) was:

Ezra Klein: You said being a democratic socialist means a more international view. I think if you take global poverty that seriously, it leads you to conclusions that in the US are considered out of political bounds. Things like sharply raising the level of immigration we permit, even up to a level of open borders. About sharply increasing ...

Bernie Sanders: Open borders? No, that's a Koch brothers proposal.

Ezra Klein: Really?

Bernie Sanders: Of course. That's a right-wing proposal, which says essentially there is no United States. ...

Ezra Klein: But it would make ...

Bernie Sanders: Excuse me ...

Ezra Klein: It would make a lot of global poor richer, wouldn't it?

Bernie Sanders: It would make everybody in America poorer —you're doing away with the concept of a nation state, and I don't think there's any country in the world that believes in that. If you believe in a nation state or in a country called the United States or UK or Denmark or any other country, you have an obligation in my view to do everything we can to help poor people. What right-wing people in this country would love is an open-border policy. Bring in all kinds of people, work for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them. I don't believe in that. I think we have to raise wages in this country, I think we have to do everything we can to create millions of jobs.

You know what youth unemployment is in the United States of America today? If you're a white high school graduate, it's 33 percent, Hispanic 36 percent, African American 51 percent. You think we should open the borders and bring in a lot of low-wage workers, or do you think maybe we should try to get jobs for those kids?

I think from a moral responsibility we've got to work with the rest of the industrialized world to address the problems of international poverty, but you don't do that by making people in this country even poorer.

07 June 2007 Bernie Sanders said:

I must oppose bringing in hundreds of thousands more workers into the United States who would lower wages and hurt American workers

Also Sander's official senate website still says:

Sanders had argued that helping unemployed American young people was the least Congress should do in a bill that allows college students from around the world to take jobs that young Americans would otherwise perform.

Alexander
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DavePhD
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    Conclusion: no, he did not say "stealing", but that word is editorialising by Mr. O'Malley? – gerrit Feb 02 '20 at 22:18
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    @gerrit Seems like a reasonable conclusion based on what I see so far. He only said "take" not "steal". – DavePhD Feb 02 '20 at 22:43
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    @Dronz in the second quote he is talking about people on H-1B visas and other legal foreign workers in the US, and in the 3rd quote he is talking about people on J-1 and H-2B visas. – DavePhD Feb 03 '20 at 00:21
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    Can you please provide a definitive answer at the beginning and then elaborate? It is hard to accept your answer in this form. –  Feb 03 '20 at 06:42
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    @polfosol It's fine not to accept an answer or to wait a year or two before accepting an answer. Other people might find even more pertinent quotes. I don't want to elaborate because I don't want to introduce bias into the answer. – DavePhD Feb 03 '20 at 11:41
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    Deleted a lot of comments by people [wanting to share their political opinions](https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3858/sorry-but-we-dont-care-about-your-political-opinions). Please don't. – Oddthinking Feb 03 '20 at 22:46
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    @polfosol - Ctrl-F for the word *steal*; the only place it appears in a block quote is in the question. At this time there is no forthcoming information to the contrary. So we await the proof of a negative.... There should be a half-closed reason: *This question will remain closed until an answer of YES can be applied.* – Mazura Feb 04 '20 at 00:51
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    Considering that there is no law against an employee “stealing” a job (though there may be some laws about employers doing so), the only difference between “stealing” and “taking” is how strong the language is, as opposed to a difference in the definition. – Andrew Grimm Feb 04 '20 at 06:53
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    @AndrewGrimm 8 U.S. Code § 1324(b)(2) requires that "The individual must attest, **under penalty of perjury** ... that the individual is a citizen or national of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, or an alien who is authorized under this chapter or by the Attorney General to be hired, recruited, or referred for such employment." https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1324a So in some cases illegal perjury is committed by the employee to get the job, and in other cases an authorized alien lawfully takes a job. – DavePhD Feb 04 '20 at 15:45
  • @AndrewGrimm - Ours is not to discuss semantics, that's ELU. Ours is to answer the question: *Did Bernie Sanders say "immigrants steal our jobs"?* – Mazura Feb 04 '20 at 21:03
  • @gerrit Yes, he didn't literally say "steal", but the meaning of his statement is equivalent, although less sensationalized, than the editorialized quote by O'Malley. This is obviously a sensitive subject because what Bernie did say could be construed as light anti-immigrant sentiment, and if we are interested in truth we cannot rush to sweep this under the rug on a semantic technicality - Bernie didn't say "steal" literally but he did imply that immigrants apply potentially negative pressure on the job market to the detriment of locals. – user2647513 Feb 05 '20 at 21:21
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    @user2647513 I do think that the exact wording is important for such a sensitive topic. To state that immigrantion from poor countries applies negative pressure on (low-skilled jobs) in an unregulated job market is a(n undisputed?) statement of fact. To state "immigrants are coming to steal our jobs" implies blame on immigrants. Tone *does* matter. – gerrit Feb 06 '20 at 09:50
  • "the meaning of his statement" - what "he did imply" - the "sensitivi[ty of the] topic" - and the 'interest in what the truth' *implicates* ... all of those are off-topic. - It's a (not so) simple Skeptics question: LMGTFY. – Mazura Feb 07 '20 at 04:11
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Yes, in 1974 Sanders is on record stating that just 351 guest visas to Jamaicans was hurting native Vermont residents, although he didn't use the word steal. He also equated the voluntary guest worker program that encouraged Jamaicans to do physically tough field work in the US to slavery.

Back in 1974, Sanders's rhetorical target was local orchard owners. Vermonters, in their view, were unwilling to do the grueling work, which involved carrying around a ladder and heavy bucket of apples for eight hours a day. The orchard owners said that Jamaicans had more flexibility and experience in agricultural work. Unlike native Vermonters, they were under no expectation of permanent employment.

Sanders, in his second gubernatorial bid of the decade, among several losses for higher office before he finally won the Burlington mayoralty in 1981 and then moved to Congress a decade later, was running under the socialist Liberty Union Party. Sanders attacked state officials for accommodating the Jamaican immigrants and implying that native workers were "lazy."

"With the Vermont unemployment rate one of the highest in the nation, I could never support importing foreign workers when our own people are out of work," said Sanders, who was collecting unemployment insurance at the time.

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    "although he didn't use the word steal" - that would be a *'no'*. – Mazura Feb 04 '20 at 00:54
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    "He also equated immigration to slavery" is a big claim to not bother backing up with a quote. What he said in the article isn't nearly the same thing, and to not even bring that quote into your answer here is sheer dishonesty. – Chris Hayes Feb 04 '20 at 03:05
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    @Mazura Considering that there is no law against an employee “stealing” a job (though there may be some laws about employers doing so), the only difference between “stealing” and “taking” is how strong the language is, as opposed to a difference in the definition. – Andrew Grimm Feb 04 '20 at 10:23
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    For those wondering, the comparison to slavery was "It sounds like she wants to bring slavery back to Vermont" - a rather ironic claim for a state which was very anti-slavery. – Andrew Grimm Feb 04 '20 at 10:25
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    @ChrisHayes the linked article contains the quote "It sounds like she wants to bring slavery back to Vermont," in reference to defenders of the program in question characterising the Jamacian workers as "pick[ing] apples like crazy from sunup to sunset" – Jontia Feb 04 '20 at 11:43
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    Just so I'm clear, as the linked article doesn't contain all the details. These quotes are about an program in 1974 that saw Apple Farmers ship 361 people from Jamaica to Vermont for Apple picking, work them from "sunup to sunset" for wages lower than locals would accept, possibly with deductions for housing/food and then send them back to Jamaica at the end of the Season? – Jontia Feb 04 '20 at 12:00
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    -1 for the poor and unreliable source and the misleading reference to slavery. I wasn't able to find either quote in any reliable source, but even accepting it as true, it reads more like criticizing working conditions for immigrants. The answer by DavePhD already shows with much better sources that Sanders was critical of immigration because of concerns for American jobs (I wouldn't quibble over "steal" or "take" here), so I'm not sure what this answer adds, except poorly sourced possibly real - maybe made up - quotes and misleading references to slavery. – tim Feb 04 '20 at 14:50
  • Imagine thinking Vox is a better source than the Examiner. –  Feb 05 '20 at 16:00
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    Imagine thinking that comparing less-than-market wages for grueling hours of manual labor to slavery is the exact same thing as comparing immigration to slavery. – Beofett Feb 05 '20 at 16:17
  • @Beofett There are 30 million African Americans, and many more Americans, that no doubt think Sanders's comment was racist. –  Feb 05 '20 at 17:50
  • (Citation required). – Beofett Feb 05 '20 at 17:52
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    @KDog Even if that was true, which you've provided absolutely zero proof of, that's so incredibly different from equating immigration to slavery. – Chris Hayes Feb 05 '20 at 19:25
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    @ChrisHayes Would you be okay if it was the guest worker program that he equated to slavery? –  Feb 05 '20 at 19:33
  • There used to be mining companies that paid their employees in company script that was worthless outside of the company stores, which charged outrageous rates for essentials (including room and board). I say this was little different from slavery. By your arguments, I've just equated mining to slavery. I.e. you're cherry picking to ignore key context so you can make an unfounded broad comparison. – Beofett Feb 05 '20 at 20:05
  • @Beofett While I wouldn't compare it to slavery, because it's not close IMO, but yes, migrant workers were treated completely horrifically. You act like I am the one saying this, but it was Bernie. I provided the entire context. –  Feb 05 '20 at 22:15
  • @KDog You do realize edit histories are visible, right? You originally stated that he "compared immigration to slavery". You then, when called on it, defended your position by claiming to know the thoughts of 30 million African Americans. Eventually you slightly walked it back to would it be "okay if it was the guest worker program that he equated to slavery", and only finally edited your post to something that was accurate right before you last comments. I act like you paraphrased Bernie as claiming immigration was comparable to slavery, which you did. – Beofett Feb 06 '20 at 12:53
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    @Beofett Of course. I really don't think there is much difference between guest worker programs and immigration is much different. One is in fact a very popular subset of the former. And of course the article made clear it was talking about guest workers. So I do think it's a rather silly distinction without much merit. I was trying to get to what was so objectionable and tried to improve the response. –  Feb 06 '20 at 17:06