The National Security Agency collected records on tens of millions of innocent telephone and Internet customers in the United States for the past seven years, the Obama administration acknowledged Thursday after The Guardian and The Washington Post revealed details of the classified effort. Sen. Bernie Sanders said authorities need tools to fight real threats by terrorists, but he called for changes in the Patriot Act, a domestic spying bill which he voted against. President Obama defended the surveillance program that he inherited from the Bush administration. “I don’t accept the excuses from the administration,” Sanders told Thom Hartmann on Friday during his weekly radio program. “We expected better from the Obama people.” Also on Friday, the Labor Department reported that unemployment in May was 13.8 percent counting workers forced into part-time jobs and those who fell out of the labor force.  With jobs in mind, Sanders on Wednesday spelled out his concerns that an immigration reform bill would cost Americans’ jobs by letting big corporations bring more foreign guest workers to the United States to work for less pay. Overall, the senator stressed, he supports a path to citizenship for 11 million people and their children.

Domestic Dragnet Sanders and civil liberties groups said the Obama administration’s data mining operation had stretched the limits of the post 9/11 surveillance law. “I think it violates the Constitution of the United States and the heart and soul of America as a free country,” Sanders said.  “To simply say in a blanket way that millions and millions of Americans should have their phone records checked by the United States government is indefensible and, to my mind, unacceptable.” Sanders renewed his criticism of the Patriot Act and called for it to be amended. “We've got to revisit the USA Patriot Act,” he said. Watch Sanders on ABC’s World News. Watch the senator on CNN.  Read The Guardian. Read The Washington Post. Read reaction in USA Today. Read a New York Times editorial.

Jobs Unemployment in May stood at 13.8 percent, according to Labor Department data that counts workers forced into part-time jobs and those who stopped looking for work. U.S. employers added 175,000 jobs in May. That was a slower hiring pace than took place during the fall and winter. The Labor Department said Friday that the more widely-cited unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent in April. The slight tick upward was attributed to the fact that more people were looking for work. Sanders is developing legislation that would address severe unemployment among young people.

Immigration Reform The Senate begins debate in the coming week on an immigration bill that would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants and their children. A son of an immigrant, Sanders supports that. He strongly objects, however, to big corporations using the bill as a way to lower wages and benefits for American workers. He laid out what he likes and dislikes about the bill in a Senate floor speech on Wednesday. “I want to see comprehensive immigration reform passed,” he said, “but at a time when nearly 14 percent of Americans do not have a full-time job and when the middle class is working longer hours for lower wages, I oppose a massive increase in temporary guest worker programs that will allow large corporations to import hundreds of thousands of blue-collar and white-collar workers from overseas.” Watch the speech.