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POLITICS AND IMMIGRATION
What the presidential hopefuls think about immigration
EDITOR'S NOTE: Immigration is always a hot-button topic during presidential campaigns. It ignites passionate reactions from citizens and new immigrants. But it is a thorny issue and politicians, understandably, have been quite careful about revealing their positions. Some of them have been very vocal about their opinions, some of them haven't said much at all. Here's what we have gathered from a variety of sources, including their appearances on television and their official websites:
By the Editorial Staff
In Hilton Head, South Carolina, presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani told residents that as chief executive he will be committed to stopping illegal immigration at the border.
Illegal immigration, he said, should be stopped “right at the border.” He said he supports legal immigration, describing it as “good for us.”
Giuliani said he favors building a fence along the border with Mexico and said if elected president he would use high-tech equipment, including heat and motion detectors, to capture border crossers without documents and encourage them to come into the country legally instead. He also vowed to reject a constitutional amendment preventing children of illegal immigrants from becoming U.S. citizens.
In the past few months, Giuliani talked about a slew of proposals signaling that he wants to end illegal immigration. He said he would enforce immigrants' fluency in English. “We should make certain that they can read English, write English and speak English,” he told reporters in October. “Immigration is the best thing we have going for us. We need new people. We need people who are going to inform us, give us new ideas, but it has to be legal. Illegal immigration is a bad thing,” he said.
During a GOP debate in Florida, presidential rival Mitt Romney charged that Giuliani ran a “sanctuary city” while serving as mayor of New York city because he did not report to federal agents the illegal immigrants who used city services or broke laws. Giuliani said that “a lot of criminals would have gone free” if not for information that illegal immigrants have provided to local law-enforcement officials.
Giuliani responded by saying that Romney ran a “sanctuary mansion” by employing illegal immigrants as landscapers. (But, according to the Boston Globe, there is no governor's mansion in Massachusetts. It said Romney hired a landscaping company at his home in Belmont and that company employed Guatemalans with no work permits. Romney denied any knowledge about the company's hiring of illegal immigrants.)
One of Giuliani's 12 core principles, according to his Web site, is the pledge to “end illegal immigration, secure our borders, and identify every non-citizen in our nation.”
Romney's Web site, meanwhile, offers a brief view on his stance: “Immigration has been an important part of our nation's success. The current system, however, puts up a concrete wall to the best and brightest, yet those without skill or education are able to walk across the border. We must reform the current immigration laws so we can secure our borders, implement a mandatory biometrically enabled, tamper-proof documentation and employment verification system, and increase legal immigration into America.”
In Iowa, Romney compared Giuliani and Mike Huckabee to Hillary Clinton on immigration issues. He said Giuliani and Huckabee have supported “tuition breaks” for children of illegal immigrants. Romney said he believes “what's right for the country is to welcome legal immigration and encourage those who come here to get in line with everyone else to become legal aliens, with no special pathway for citizenship.”
Romney's get-tough policy on illegal immigrants apparently doesn't apply to Cubans, who he says should be welcomed with open arms, according to his recent interview with a major daily newspaper. "I can tell you my inclination would be to say as many Cubans as want to come here should come in," Romney was quoted as saying. Romney said he favors continuing the nation's Cuba policy, which restricts investment in the communist nation and prohibits U.S. citizens from visiting there except under narrow circumstances. He described Cuban Americans are exemplary citizens who have brought "great vitality, skills and energy to the American experience."
Mike Huckabee's Web site lists his 9-point strategy for immigration enforcement and border security. It includes building a fence that ensures a surveillance camera system installed along the border by July 1, 2010; increased number of border patrol agents; rejection of amnesty for illegal immigrants and of Mexico's "matricula consular" card and elimination of the visa lottery system. Huckabee's plan was “partially modeled” on a proposal by Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, which seeks to restrict immigration. See Related Story On Huckabee Below This Page.
John McCain, for his part, vows to secure the border first before discussing what to do with the millions of illegal immigrants. His website describes immigration as “one of those challenging issues that touch on many aspects of American life.”
Hillary Clinton, according to a press release from her campaign headquarters, supports deploying new technology that can help stop the flow of undocumented immigrants into the country and an employer verification system. “We need to do more to know who is in our country by securing our borders and ensuring that employers comply with the law against hiring and exploiting undocumented workers,” the news release said. Clinton opposes a guest worker program that creates a supply of cheap labor that undermines the wages of U.S. workers, it said.
Barack Obama 's Web site says he “believes the immigration issue has been exploited by politicians to divide the nation rather than find real solutions. This divisiveness has allowed the illegal immigration problem to worsen, with borders that are less secure than ever and an economy that depends on millions of workers living in the shadows.” Obama, the site says, supports a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens. “Obama believes we must fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill,” it said.
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By the Editorial Staff
Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee recently came under attack after he used the volatile situation in Pakistan to justify his argument for building a fence on the border with Mexico. He told reporters in Orlando, Florida : “We ought to have an immediate, very clear monitoring of our borders and particularly to make sure if there's any unusual activity of Pakistanis coming into the country. ... We have more Pakistani illegals coming across our border than all other nationalities except those immediately south of the border. … And in light of what is happening in Pakistan it ought to give us pause as to why are so many illegals coming across these borders. … The fact is that the immigration issue is not so much about people coming to pick lettuce or make beds, it's about someone coming with a shoulder-fired missile.”
Notice the part about “… more Pakistani illegals coming across our border than all other nationalities except those immediately south of the border”?
The New York Times' response: “In fact, far more illegal immigrants come from the Philippines, Korea, China and Vietnam, according to recent estimates from the Department of Homeland Security.”
PRESIDENT BUSH ON IMMIGRATION
President Bush was interviewed by a Fox News reporter. The wide-ranging interview, aired on Sunday, Jan. 28, briefly touched on the immigration issue and the presidential campaign:
REPORTER: Do you think immigration will be a big part of this election?
BUSH: “I hope not. Well, I just hope it's not because that debate can turn very ugly. And we'll begin to lose really the essence of America if we somehow start bashing immigrants. The great thing about America is we're a home of immigrants. And so I'm concerned that an emotional debate that ends up pitting people against each other really will cause America to break up, lose its soul."
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