Bernie Sanders Hires Undocumented Immigrant To Help Run 2020 Campaign
An Arizona woman who is legally barred from voting in the 2020 presidential election nonetheless will be playing a part in its outcome, according to several published reports.
The Washington Examiner announced that Belén Sisa will serve as deputy press secretary to the campaign, as of an announcement made Wednesday.
Sisa came to the U.S. from Argentina at the age of six, she has said, and is an illegal immigrant who is protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Fox News reported that Sisa had posted an announcement about her new job on her Facebook page. The link accessing the post was not working as of Friday night.
“This is really emotional for me. I can’t help but think of 18-year-old Belén, who felt hopeless and powerless to the anti-immigrant attacks and policies that were holding her back from her dreams,” she wrote, according to media accounts of the post.
“I cant help but think of the generations of sacrifice my family has had to do for me to get here. Never in our wildest dreams did we think I’d be making moves like these,” she wrote.
Sisa initially supported Sanders in 2016, according to the Arizona Republic. She later supported Democrat Hillary Clinton and noted that she had power even without voting.
“Even though I can’t vote, I can get 200 people to vote, and that matters,” Sisa said.
“Everything can change depending on who becomes the next president. Our voice is starting to matter, and we can have an impact even though we can’t cast a ballot ourselves.”
Barry Richard of WBSM thought Sanders had crossed a line.
“Sisa has an amazing sense of entitlement. She believes that she has a right to be here because she doesn’t want to be in Argentina. According to Sisa, our laws and our sovereignty don’t matter if they block her from achieving her objectives. In other words, the rules simply not apply to her,” he wrote.
“Bernie’s selection of Sisa as his press aide says a lot about him as well and his lack of respect for the laws and traditions of this country,” he wrote.
On her Facebook page, Sisa defended Sanders against criticism on the issue of race.
“i completely understand, from personal experience I can tell you though that his intentions are much more on the right side of history than most candidates. He’s worth giving a chance to and giving him our perspective. He’s not perfect, no candidate is,” she wrote.
“Our communities are so much more than just a single issue. I believe we are much more complex than that and want to have healthcare and education as well, but it’s not all one sided? He needs to understand that and be better, but we also need to not single handily just criticize him. I dont hear many of the other candidates speaking in a better way about race either,” she wrote.
Sia attracted national attention in 2017 when she posted a photo of herself with a tax return on Instagram to make the point that illegal immigrants pay taxes, NBC has reported.
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