| Immigration Issues |
* Barack Obama - D
 |
Ralph Nader - I
 |
Chuck Baldwin - CON
 |
| Immigration, a General Statement |
Obama: Like millions of Americans, the immigrant story is our story. We understand the allure of freedom and opportunity in the U.S. From this very personal vantage point, and because millions of immigrants live and work in Illinois and Florida, we take a special interest in the current debate on the reform of our immigration policies. When Congress last addressed this issue comprehensively in 1986, there were approximately four million illegal immigrants living here. Today, it is estimated there are more than 11 million. We are a generous and welcoming people, but those who enter our country illegally, and those who employ them, disrespect the rule of law. And because we live in an age where terrorists are challenging our borders, we simply cannot allow people to pour into the U.S. undetected, undocumented and unchecked. Americans are right to demand better border security and better enforcement of the immigration laws.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Securing Our Borders |
Obama: Do I believe that fences make good neighbors and are the right approach? I don't believe that...But what I also believe is that it is important for us, in order to get comprehensive reform, to give the American people some sense that there is an orderly process for people to come into this country.
Source: Democratic Debate, The Houston Chronicle Date: 07/01/2007 |
Nader: We have to control our immigration and our borders. We have to limit the number of people who come into this country illegally and see if a Canadian type temporary permit system can work for seasonal jobs.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 10/04/2008 |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Immigration Reform |
Obama: Barack Obama has played a leading role in crafting comprehensive immigration reform. Obama believes that our broken immigration system can only be fixed by putting politics aside and offering a complete solution that secures our border, enforces our laws and reaffirms our heritage as a nation of immigrants.
Every year, a million people enter the country legally and another 500,000-800,000 people come illegally or illegally overstay their visas. Obama believes immigrant workers should have legal protections to avoid abuse and downward pressure on American wages and working conditions. He also realizes the need to increase the number of people we allow into the country legally to a level that keeps families together and meets the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill.
While highly skilled immigrants have contributed in beneficial ways to our domestic technology industry, there are plenty of Americans who could be filling those positions given the proper training. Barack Obama is committed to investing in communities and people who have not had an opportunity to work and participate in the Internet economy as anything other than consumers. Barack Obama supports comprehensive immigration reform that includes improvement in our visa programs, including our legal permanent resident visa programs and temporary programs including the H-1B program, to attract some of the world’s most talented people to America. We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work, and become Americans over time. And we should examine our ability to increase the number of permanent visas we issue to foreign skilled workers. Obama will work to ensure immigrant workers are less dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country and would hold accountable employers who abuse the system and their workers.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Deportation |
Obama: We simply cannot claim to have dealt with the problems of illegal immigration if we ignore the illegal resident population or pretend that they will leave voluntarily. Some of the proposed ideas in Congress provide a temporary legal status and call for deportation, but fail to answer how the government would deport 11 million people. If temporary legal status is granted but the policy says these immigrants are never good enough to become Americans, then the policy makes little sense.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants |
Obama: Millions of undocumented immigrants live and work here without our knowing their identity or their background. We need to strike a workable bargain with them. They have to acknowledge that breaking our immigration laws was wrong. They must pay a penalty, and abide by all of our laws going forward. They must earn the right to stay over a 6-year period, and then they must wait another 5 years as legal permanent residents before they become citizens. But in exchange for accepting those penalties, we must allow undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows and step on a path toward full participation in our society.
We have to make sure that employers are held accountable, because right now employers are taking advantage of undocumented workers. And we've got to give a pathway to citizenship. But people have to earn it. They're going to have to pay a fine. They've got to make sure that they're learning English. They've got to go to the back of the line so that they're not rewarded for having broken the law.
Source: obama.senate.gov/speech/060403-floor_statement_3/index.php Date: 04/03/2006 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Self-Deportation |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Visa Enforcement |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Real ID Act |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| E-Verify System |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Database Of Foreigners |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Americanization |
Obama: A key choke point in the process to becoming a legal permanent resident or a U.S. citizen is the F.B.I. name/security check. Many law-abiding legal immigrants see their immigration applications delayed by months and often years as the overwhelmed F.B.I. completes their background checks. Obama introduced legislation that passed the Senate to improve the speed and accuracy of these background checks.
In the most recent immigration debate on the U.S. Senate floor, Obama fought to improve and pass a comprehensive bill. Obama introduced amendments to put greater emphasis on keeping immigrant families together and to revisit a controversial new points system that never received a proper public hearing
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Immigration Application Fees |
Obama: Obama joined Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) to introduce the Citizenship Promotion Act to ensure that immigration application fees are both reasonable and fair. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decided to raise fees on applications to as much as $2,400 for a family of four. Obama's bill reverses large fee increases for legal immigrants seeking to become citizens and provides grants to states to help promote citizenship.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Border Fence |
Obama: I have been a consistent champion of comprehensive immigration reform. And keep in mind that my father came to this country from a small village in Africa because he was looking for opportunity. And so when I see people who are coming across these borders, whether legally or illegally, I know that the motivation is trying to create a better life for their children and their grandchildren. So I was one of the leaders, along with several other senators, in passing comprehensive immigration reform. It failed in the House. That is going to involve some elements of border security because we've got to make our borders more secure. We can't just have hundreds of thousands of people coming into the country without knowing who they are.
Source: 2007 Democratic primary debate on Univision in Spanish Date: 09/09/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Using National Guard Troops to Secure Mexican Border |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Driver’s Licenses to Illegals |
Obama: I support driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
Source: Democratic debate in Las Vegas, Nevada Date: 11/15/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Employers Who Hire Illegals |
Obama: To remove incentives to enter the country illegally, we need to crack down on employers that hire undocumented immigrants.
American employers also need to take responsibility. Too often illegal immigrants are lured here with the promise of a job, only to receive unconscionably low wages. In the interest of cheap labor, unscrupulous employers look the other way when employees provide fraudulent U.S. citizenship documents. These acts hurt both American workers and immigrants whose sole aim is to work hard and get ahead. That's why we need a simple, foolproof and mandatory mechanism for all employers to check the legal status of new hires.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Organization of American States (OAS) Diplomacy |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Federal Enforcement of Immigration Laws |
Obama: The federal law is not being enforced not because of failures of local communities, because the federal government has not done the job that it needs to do. What I would do as president is pass comprehensive immigration reform, and the federal government should be doing what it's supposed to be doing, which is controlling our borders, but also providing a rational immigration system, which we currently don't have.
Source: Dartmouth Debate Date: 09/26/2007 |
Nader: We need to enforce the law against employers. It is hard to blame desperately poor people who want to feed their families and are willing to work hard to do so. You have to start with Washington and Wall Street. Enforcement is nearly non-existent – so much so that it has become a conscious policy to ignore both the labor and immigration laws by successive Republican and Democratic Administrations, including not enforcing laws against cruel sweatshops in the United States from New York City to Los Angeles. Such is the power of employers.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 10/04/2008 |
Baldwin: No Response |
| State Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws |
Obama: Voted NO to amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to facilitate information sharing between federal and local law enforcement officials related to an individual's immigration status.
Source: www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm? Date: 05/24/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Local Enforcement of Immigration Laws |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| State and Local Immigration Laws |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Illegal Immigration as a Felony |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants |
Obama: There are millions of people living in the shadows who would like to fully embrace our values and become full members of our democracy. For the millions living here illegally but otherwise playing by the rules, we must encourage them to come out of hiding and get right with the law. Barack Obama supports a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, not violate the law, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Criminalize Assistance to Illegal Immigrants |
Obama: Americans understand that for years there are undocumented workers who have tried to follow our laws and be good neighbors and good citizens, and have paid into the Social Security Trust Fund. Once that person regularizes his or her status, and as they proceed down the path to earned citizenship, they should have the benefit after having followed the law and made those contributions. That is fairness. We should not steal their funds or empty their Social Security accounts. That is not fair. It does not reward their hard work or their financial contributions. The amendment proposes to change existing law to prohibit an individual from gaining the benefit of any contributions made while the individual was in an undocumented status. I oppose this amendment and believe it is wrong.
Source: Bill S.Amdt.3985 to S.2611 ; vote number 2006-130 htm Date: 05/18/2006 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Guest Worker Program |
Obama: We must also replace the flow of undocumented immigrants coming to work here with a new flow of guestworkers. Illegal immigration is bad for illegal immigrants and bad for the workers against whom they compete. Replacing the flood of illegals with a regulated stream of legal immigrants who enter the United States after background checks and who are provided labor rights would enhance our security, raise wages, and improve working conditions for all Americans
Source: www.dmiblog.com/archives/2007/01/what_are_the_candidates_saying_4.html Date: 01/31/2007 |
Nader: Immigrant workers, even if they are undocumented, should be given all the fair-labor standards and all the rights and benefits of American workers. In addition they should be be allowed to get a drivers license in order to reduce hazards on the highway and allow them to function in our culture, e.g. get to work, get their children to school. If this country doesn't like that, maybe it will do something about the immigration laws. But we cannot treat undocumented immigrants as subjects for inhumanity.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 10/04/2008 |
Baldwin: No Response |
| H-1B Program |
Obama: Barack Obama supports comprehensive immigration reform that includes improvement in our visa programs, including our legal permanent resident visa programs and temporary programs including the H-1B program, to attract some of the world's most talented people to America. We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work, and become Americans over time. And we should examine our ability to increase the number of permanent visas we issue to foreign skilled workers. Obama will work to ensure immigrant workers are less dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country and would hold accountable employers who abuse the system and their workers.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Immigrant Troops |
Obama: About 69,300 foreign-born men and women serve in the U.S. armed forces - roughly 5 percent of the total active-duty force. Of those, 43 percent - 29,800 - are not U.S. citizens. The Pentagon says that more than 100 immigrant soldiers have died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama believes that legal immigrants who have fought for us overseas should have expedited procedures towards citizenship.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Undocumented Immigrants |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Electronic Verification System for Employers |
Obama: Barack Obama has championed a proposal with Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Max Baucus (D-MT) to create a new employment eligibility verification system so employers can verify that their employees are legally eligible to work in the U.S.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Legal Status for Undocumented Farm Workers |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Immigrant Birthright Citizenship |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| English as the Official National Language |
Obama: Everybody is going to learn to speak English if they live in this country. The issue is not whether or not future generations of immigrants are going to learn English. The question is how can we come up with both a legal, sensible immigration policy.
Source: U.S. Senate Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 Date: 06/06/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Naturalization Backlog for Immigrants |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Legal Residency for Immigrant Youth |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Alien Minors |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Permanent Partners Immigration Act |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Social Services to Illegal Immigrants |
Obama: When I was a state senator in Illinois, I voted to require that illegal aliens get trained, get a license, get insurance to protect public safety. That was my intention...
The problem we have here is not driver's licenses. Undocumented workers do not come here to drive... They're here to work. And so instead of being distracting by what has now become a wedge issue, let's focus on actually solving the problem that this administration, the Bush administration, had done nothing about it.
Source: Democratic Debate, hosted by CNN, Las Vegas, NV Date: 11/15/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Minutemen Project |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Immigration Issues |
Bob Barr - L
 |
John Mccain - R
 |
| Immigration, a General Statement |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: The reality is, there are an estimated [?] million undocumented people living and working in this country. It would be impossible to identify and round up all 10 to 11 million of the current undocumented, and if we did, it would ground our nation's economy to a halt. These millions of people are working. Aliens will not come forward to simply 'report and deport.' We have a national interest in identifying these individuals, incentivizing them to come forward out of the shadows, go through security background checks, pay back taxes, pay penalties for breaking the law, learn to speak English, and regularize their status. Anyone who thinks this goal can be achieved without providing an eventual path to a permanent legal status is not serious about solving this problem.
Source: John McCain's official U.S. Senate website Date: 05/13/2005 |
| Securing Our Borders |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: I have always believed that our border must be secure and that the federal government has utterly failed in its responsibility to ensure that it is secure. If we have learned anything from the recent immigration debate, it is that Americans have little trust that their government will honor a pledge to do the things necessary to make the border secure. As president, I will secure the border. I will restore the trust Americans should have in the basic competency of their government. A secure border is an essential element of our national security. Tight border security includes not just the entry and exit of people, but also the effective screening of cargo at our ports and other points of entry.
Source: www.johnmccain.com Date: 12/05/2007 |
| Immigration Reform |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Voted YES on comprehensive immigration reform.
Establishes specified benchmarks which must be met before the guest worker and legalization programs may be initiated:
operational control of the border with Mexico;
Border Patrol increases;
border barriers, including vehicle barriers, fencing, radar, and aerial vehicles;
detention capacity for illegal aliens apprehended crossing the US-Mexico border;
workplace enforcement, including an electronic employment verification system; and
Z-visa alien processing.
Source: McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill; Bill S.1639 ; vote number 2007-235 Date: 06/28/2007 |
| Deportation |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Amnesty is forgiveness. This is payment of a fine. This is admission of guilt. This is earned citizenship, that's what it is... Amnesty has to be an important part because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here and pay taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it... I think we can set up a program where amnesty is extended to a certain number of people who are eligible and at the same time make sure that we have some control over people who come in and out of this country.. .Those undocumented workers who declare themselves, pass criminal background checks, prove their employment, pay fines, taxes, learn English and study American civics may be offered eventually, and I stress eventually, a path to citizenship. Critics of the bill attack this as amnesty and a special path to citizenship that is denied to lawful immigrants. Both charges are false.
Source: www.politico.com/news/stories/0607/4299.html Date: 06/04/2007 |
| Self-Deportation |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Visa Enforcement |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Real ID Act |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| E-Verify System |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Database Of Foreigners |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Americanization |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Immigration Application Fees |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Border Fence |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: I would continue the effort that we are making to beef up our borders. The reason why Arizona has more crossings illegally than any other part of all the rest-51% of all illegal crossings from Mexico to the United States are across the Arizona border and that is because we don't have the fences and we don't have the barriers that they have in California and Texas. And we are now working very hard to increase those. And by the way, it isn't just fences. It is also UABs, censors, other high tech equipment rather than just building walls as well...although, in urban areas, you need walls. So, I think we cannot relent or let up in building those security barriers across our borders.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 10/04/2008 |
| Using National Guard Troops to Secure Mexican Border |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Driver’s Licenses to Illegals |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Employers Who Hire Illegals |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: To achieve our objectives, America needs the strong reform I've proposed that will: Strengthen the laws and penalties against those who hire illegal aliens and violate immigration law; Achieve and maintain the integrity of official documents to stop fraud, verify immigration status and employment, and enforce immigration law.
Source: www.unionleader.com/article.aspx? Date: 03/06/2007 |
| Organization of American States (OAS) Diplomacy |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Federal Enforcement of Immigration Laws |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| State Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Local Enforcement of Immigration Laws |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| State and Local Immigration Laws |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Illegal Immigration as a Felony |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: I've never supported amnesty. A few nights ago, Sen. Lieberman & I had a town hall meeting together. It was a rather unusual event. The issue came up. Lieberman said, McCain has never supported amnesty & anybody says that he does is a liar, is lying. No better authority than Gov. Romney believed that it's not amnesty because two years ago, he was asked, and he said that my plan was, quote, "reasonable, and was not amnesty." It's a matter of record. Learn English, back of the line behind everybody else.
Source: 2008 Facebook/WMUR-NH Republican primary debate Date: 01/05/2006 |
| Criminalize Assistance to Illegal Immigrants |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Guest Worker Program |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: We need to have a guest worker program. Our proposal is basically you can get a tamper-proof visa after your job has been proven that it cannot be filled by an American citizen. Now, what do you do with the 11 million people that are already here? Make them earn citizenship because they have broken our laws.
Source: politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/index.html Date: 02/21/2008 |
| H-1B Program |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Immigrant Troops |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Undocumented Immigrants |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Things are terrible, and we've got to fix it. But we're not going to fix it until we have comprehensive immigration reform. When there's a demand, there's going to be a supply. There are jobs that Americans will not do, so we have to make it possible for someone to come to this country to do a job that an American won't do and then go back to the country from where they came.
Source: AZ Senate Debate, in Tucson Citizen Date: 10/16/2004 |
| Electronic Verification System for Employers |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Legal Status for Undocumented Farm Workers |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Voted YES on allowing more foreign workers into the US for farm work.
Vote to create a national registry containing names of U.S. workers who want to perform temporary or seasonal agricultural work, and to require the Attorney General to allow more foreign workers into the U.S. for farm work under H-2A visas.
Source: Voted YES on allowing more foreign workers into the US for farm work Date: 07/23/1998 |
| Immigrant Birthright Citizenship |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| English as the Official National Language |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Voted YES to amend title 4, United States Code, to declare English as the national language of the Government of the United States, and for other purposes.
Source: senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm? Date: 06/06/2007 |
| Naturalization Backlog for Immigrants |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Legal Residency for Immigrant Youth |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Alien Minors |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Permanent Partners Immigration Act |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Social Services to Illegal Immigrants |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: I came to the Senate not to do the easy things, but to do the hard things. Mel Martinez and I knew this was going to be a tough issue, but we thought the status quo was unacceptable: broken borders; 12 million people here illegally; a need for a temporary worker program, certainly in my state in the agricultural section, certainly in this state of Florida...
And we need to sit down as Americans and recognize these are God's children as well. And they need some protection under the law. And they need some of our love and compassion.
Source: Republican Presidential Debate, St. Petersburg, Florida, hosted by CNN Date: 11/28/2007 |
| Minutemen Project |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |