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Immigration Concerns
In 1986, Congress passed and President Reagan signed the Simpson-Mazzoli Act, granting amnesty to illegal immigrants currently in the United States and making it illegal to hire or recruit undocumented immigrants. Unfortunately, the documentation required to work legally was easily forged, and today there are over 10 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
We need comprehensive immigration reform
The best way to deal with illegal immigration is to enforce - actually enforce - the law at the worksite. No wall is high enough to keep people from coming over it - or under it - if there are jobs waiting on the other side.
- Employers who disregard the law should be actually punished - with fines and, if necessary, incarceration.
- Worker identification should be truly tamper-proof. Fortunately, we have better technology than we did in 1986, so that goal is in reach with the help of biometrics. Of course, we must safeguard our civil liberties and privacy.
I don’t believe it’s practical to deport the 10-12 million undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States. And I don’t believe in breaking up families. Instead, we should look to bring them out of the shadows and put them on a path to citizenship, providing that they:
- have been working
- have paid taxes
- have not committed any crimes since coming to this country
- speak, or are learning to speak, English
- pay a nominal fine
We should also ensure that those immigrants currently in the process of becoming citizens are not disadvantaged by these reforms.
I support guest worker programs for seasonal jobs. But I am leery of guest worker programs that would create a permanent underclass of exploited workers or drive down the wages of American workers.
Finally, we should re-examine the economic and trade policies that have contributed to illegal immigration. Working to improve economic conditions in Mexico, which we’ve tried and failed to do with NAFTA, could help reduce the incentive many have to attempt to enter the United States illegally.
We need to tighten our border security
Our border is the line of first defense against those who would do us harm. Yet five and a half years after 9/11, we still have dangerous vulnerabilities, which run the risk of allowing a terrorist to transport weapons across our border. I believe we should be far more aggressive with border security, which would protect the country and stymie illegal immigration.
- Borders: I support substantial increases in the ranks of the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol, and consular officials to secure our borders.
- Seaports: Over 1 million passengers and pedestrians, 327,000 vehicles, and 70,000 shipping containers come into the United States through ports of entry each day. Only 80% of the country's ports have the ability to screen for nuclear and radiological materials and weapons. I will support legislation that requires the following steps: 100% of all foreign ports should be able to screen; 100% of all U.S. ports should have "smart container"; and "smart containers" should be made available to shippers that will detect and report entries into containers so anything dangerous can be quickly spotted.
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