Immigration

John McCain

Barack Obama

*Translation

McCain plans to secure the borders by holding governors in border states accountable. He would provide more money to ground resources, support staff training and U.S. attorney's offices in border states. He also would deploy aerial vehicles and other aircraft to secure borders. McCain plans to use an electronic verification system in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security to verify employees' identities and prosecute employers that hire illegal immigrants. He recognizes that temporary worker programs meet labor needs. He would require that illegal immigrants pay a fine, learn English and attain legal status.

Obama plans to secure the borders using extra personnel, infrastructure and technology. He would work to increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and fill job vacancies. He says employers would face harsher consequences for employing illegal immigrants, which he said would reduce incentives for them to come to America. Obama also plans to allow illegal immigrants to pay a fine, learn English and then move to the bottom of the list to become legal immigrants. Promoting economic development in Mexico would reduce illegal immigration.

If the government wants to demonstrate a commitment to controlling illegal immigration then it will need to hold employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants accountable. They do not need to catch every employer who violates laws against hiring illegal immigrants; they need to catch enough of them and make the penalties significant enough that other employers get the message that it is not worth the risk.     Many governors have not considered illegal immigration to be a serious problem and, in fact, have accommodated illegal immigrants with government-provided benefits and services. Given their positions, it will not take much to convince them that the border has been secured. Border security is one component of an overall strategy to control illegal immigration. Providing funding to enhance borders without eliminating the magnets that draw people to this country illegally will not solve the problem. There needs to be a plan to discourage illegal immigration. Incentives to come to the U.S., for example jobs, need to be removed. An electronic verification system could help solve the problem, but business groups are resisting. An e-verify system, a voluntary system, is in place, but the Senate has only reauthorized it through March.     A shortage of labor is not a current problem, therefore there is no reason to institute new guest worker programs or expand existing ones.     While spouses and children should arrive as a unit, keeping extended families together is challenging because this divides another family, who will then petition to come to the U.S. Limiting family reunification to nuclear families would end family chain migration.     Enforcing laws in a way that makes it more difficult to find employment or access nonessential, non-emergency government benefits and services should convince illegal immigrants that there is no reason to stay. The amnesty plans that have been supported by both Sens. McCain and Obama does not, as claimed, send them to the back of the line; the plan would actually create a special new line for people who broke our laws. It is not a punishment but a reward when people are waiting at the back of the line for citizenship in the U.S. while those who play by the rules must wait in another country.     Also, illegal immigrants have impacts on state and local governments. Vital services such as education and health care are mostly paid for by state and local governments. The inevitable consequence of a massive amnesty would be that schools would be forced to absorb many new students, and it is also likely that most of these illegal immigrants lack health insurance, thereby making them heavily dependent on public health care. From Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.