The Candidates on Immigration
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John McCain |
McCain supports comprehensive immigration reform that addresses border security and what he calls the economy's need for immigrant labor. He believes in reforming immigration policy so that highly skilled foreign workers are more likely to remain in the country. McCain and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) twice co-sponsored a comprehensive reform bill that would double the size of the U.S. Border Patrol. The bill, which was defeated in the summer of 2007, called for a border fence, a crackdown on employers who hire undocumented immigrants, a "path to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants and a "guest worker" program offering temporary visas. In response to the bill's failure, McCain said he "got the message" that for many Americans, border security takes precedence over immigration reform. |
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Barack Obama |
Obama says that "the time to fix our broken immigration system is now." He supports reform that provides "stronger enforcement on the border" by adding personnel, infrastructure and technology. To remove the incentives for people to enter the country illegally, he wants to "crack down on employers that hire undocumented immigrants." To help businesses know who they are hiring, Obama supports a congressional proposal that would create a new employment eligibility verification system so employers can verify that their employees are legally eligible to work in the U.S. He says he will "not support any bill that does not provide [an] earned path to citizenship for the undocumented population." He has been a proponent of guest-worker programs that first offer available jobs to American workers. |
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