Joni Ernst: Co-sponsored legislation with path for DACA participants in exchange for border wall funding and decreases in legal immigration. Opposes overall amnesty.
Theresa Greenfield: Supports DREAM Act for DACA participants and keeping families together. Wants a plan that's "tough on workplace enforcement" along with "more technology and security on the border."
Theresa Greenfield: Supports DREAM Act for DACA participants and keeping families together. Wants a plan that's "tough on workplace enforcement" along with "more technology and security on the border."
Joni Ernst: Co-sponsored legislation with path for DACA participants in exchange for border wall funding and decreases in legal immigration. Opposes overall amnesty.
Ernst: A pathway to citizenship is something that could be worked on bipartisan. We need to sit down and discuss that.
Q: Does it mean legal residency or does it mean citizenship --
Ernst: I would support more of a legal residency. However, as we are moving forward on a new immigration system we have to make sure that we are carefully vetting, making sure that they are a good fit for citizenship here in the US.
Greenfield: We need to modernize our immigration system. We need to modernize our visa system and shorten up that path.
Q: Does that mean a path to citizenship or does that mean legal status?
Greenfield: That means that we're working on those paths to citizenship and for our Dreamers, they need to have a legal status, people need to be working towards that.
"What was happening at the southern border was horrific. Children were being separated from their families to be used as pawns. That is not who we are as a nation.
"While the president's action today is progress, the work is not done. Congress cannot use this executive order as an excuse not to act. Our nation's immigration system is still broken, and our border is not secure. It is time for Washington to get the job done."
"It's a problem with our federal immigration," Andy McGuire said. "To make laws where we would have a comprehensive policy."
"This past legislation session I was proud to stand up and speak against a bill that would have, and will federalize law enforcement," Nate Boulton said.
"That bill listed under public safety is a charade. All they are trying to do, the Republican legislature there, is divert attention from the very poor fiscal management they are doing for our state," Fred Hubbelll said.
"The governor should use the voice at the federal level that we have a path to citizenship that doesn't tear families apart," Cathy Glasson said.
"It's a problem with our federal immigration," Andy McGuire said. "To make laws where we would have a comprehensive policy."
"This past legislation session I was proud to stand up and speak against a bill that would have, and will federalize law enforcement," Nate Boulton said.
"That bill listed under public safety is a charade. All they are trying to do, the Republican legislature there, is divert attention from the very poor fiscal management they are doing for our state," Fred Hubbelll said.
"The governor should use the voice at the federal level that we have a path to citizenship that doesn't tear families apart," Cathy Glasson said.
"It's a problem with our federal immigration," Andy McGuire said. "To make laws where we would have a comprehensive policy."
"This past legislation session I was proud to stand up and speak against a bill that would have, and will federalize law enforcement," Nate Boulton said.
"That bill listed under public safety is a charade. All they are trying to do, the Republican legislature there, is divert attention from the very poor fiscal management they are doing for our state," Fred Hubbelll said.
"The governor should use the voice at the federal level that we have a path to citizenship that doesn't tear families apart," Cathy Glasson said.
A: No one is illegal. I support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented peoples. I think that we reform immigration, encourage and show the incentives for documented immigration, while securing our borders.ÿ
"It's a problem with our federal immigration," Andy McGuire said. "To make laws where we would have a comprehensive policy."
"This past legislation session I was proud to stand up and speak against a bill that would have, and will federalize law enforcement," Nate Boulton said.
"That bill listed under public safety is a charade. All they are trying to do, the Republican legislature there, is divert attention from the very poor fiscal management they are doing for our state," Fred Hubbelll said.
"The governor should use the voice at the federal level that we have a path to citizenship that doesn't tear families apart," Cathy Glasson said.
Gov. O'MALLEY: We've actually been focusing on border security to the exclusion of talking about comprehensive immigration reform. The truth of the matter is, net immigration from Mexico last year was zero. Fact check me. Go ahead. Check it out. But the truth of the matter is, if we want wages to go up, we've got to get 11 million of our neighbors out of off the book shadow economy, and into the full light of an American economy.
CLINTON: I think all of us on this stage agree that we need comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship. Border security has always been a part of that debate. And it is a fact that the net immigration from Mexico and South has basically zeroed out.
O'MALLEY: We've actually been focusing on border security to the exclusion of talking about comprehensive immigration reform. In fact, if more border security--and more and more deportations-- were going to bring our Republican brothers and sisters to the table, it would have happened long ago. The truth of the matter is, net immigration from Mexico last year was zero. Fact check me. Go ahead. Check it out. But the truth of the matter is, if we want wages to go up, we've got to get 11 million of our neighbors out of off the book shadow economy, and into the full light of an American economy. That's what our parents and grandparents always did. That's what we need to do as a nation. Our symbol is the Statue of Liberty. It is not a barbed wire fence.
CLINTON: It is a fact that the net immigration from Mexico and South has basically zeroed out.
Graham, too, spoke in favor of immigration reform, including legal status for undocumented workers, a stand often opposed by conservative audiences. He cast his support in terms of economic necessity, to expand the workforce to pay for entitlement programs for retiring Baby Boomers.
JEB BUSH (VIDEO CLIP): Immigrants are an engine of economic vitality. We need to find a way, a path to legalized status for those that have come here and have languished in the shadows. There's no way that they're going to be deported. No one is suggesting an organized effort to do that.
Q (to SEN. RICK SANTORUM): Is he right that immigration is the engine of economic vitality?
SANTORUM: Immigration can be, if immigration is done the right way. Immigration policy in America has to put America and American workers first. The focus of immigration policies [should be] on where we need certain skills or certain people to come to this country to help gin up and encourage our economy.
Carson called for common-sense solutions to end government overreach and return America to traditional values. He spoke at relative length on immigration, calling for harsher penalties for those who employ undocumented immigrants and better border security. Carson also called on the U.S. to adopt a version of Canada's guest worker program, requiring those seeking work to apply while they live outside the U.S.
Perry ignored the protesters, who were escorted out of the building by police. "Here is what I say: If Washington refuses to enforce the border, Texas will. This problem has dragged on long enough," Perry said.
Perry got enthusiastic applause and cheers for his criticism of President Barack Obama's administration and his calls for lower taxes, less government regulation and tougher border security.
Once we secure our border we can begin to reform our legal immigration system, which today makes it extremely difficult for those who seek to come here legally. For example, the H1B visa system that provides a path for highly skilled workers to immigrate to America is full of unnecessary obstacles and red tape.
Ernst: Strongly Agree
A: Absolutely. It's about the only way to turn them into taxpayers.
Clovis: Strongly Agree
If we have learned nothing, we should take heed of the lessons of the aftermath of the passage and implementation of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. First, more than twice as many illegal immigrants came forth for amnesty than were estimated by Congress before passage.
Immigration reform is necessary and should be undertaken deliberately and intentionally. However, it should be done in phases with border security at the very top of the priority list. To do otherwise is to betray the American people.
A: America has got to learn how to take a joke. But allow me to give you my real solution to the immigration problem. I happen to believe that is four problems.
A: The thing we need to do most on illegal immigration--because there has been zero leadership in Washington., we've created this patchwork of solutions in the states, which makes for a very complex & confusing environment. When elected president, I'm simply going to prove to the American people that we can secure the border. That's what they want done. And I'm not going to talk about anything else until we get it done. We can finish. And I will talk to the fou border state governors and get verification from them that, in fact, we've secured the border. And once that is done, then we can move on. But this discussion has zero in the way of any intellectual credibility until such time as we secure the border.
A: Well, of course not. We're not looking to bring people in for jobs that can be done by Americans. But at the same time, we want to make sure that America welcomes the best and brightest in the world. If someone comes here and gets a PhD in physics, that's the person I'd like to staple a green card to their diploma, rather than saying to them to go home. I want the best & brightest to be metered into the country based upon the needs of our employment sector & create jobs by bringing technology and innovation that comes from people around the world. I like legal immigration I'd have the number of visas that we give to people here that come here legally, determined in part by the needs of our employment community. But we have to secure our border and crack down on those that bring folks here and hire here illegally.
A: I think it's very important to go back and look at how the Selective Service Commission worked in World War II, because it was local, practical decision-making, and people genuinely thought it was fair and it was reasonable.
Q: What about Pres. Obama's joke about protecting the borders wit alligators and a moat?
A: That was the perfect symbol of his failure as a leader. He failed to get any immigration reform through when he controlled the Senate. He could ram through Obamacare, but he couldn't deal with immigration. I would be prepared to take as many people from Homeland Security's bureaucracy in Washington and move them to Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, as are needed, to control the border. And we should have English as the official language of government.
A: I don't like putting the burden on our businessmen to be the policemen. That means he has to be policing activity. But I have a strong position on immigration. I don't think that we should give amnesty and they become voters. But I do think we should deal with our borders. One way that I would suggest that we could do it is pay less attention to the borders between Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan and bring our troops home and deal with the border. But why do we pay more attention to the borders overseas and less attention to the borders here at home? We now have a mess on the borders, and it has a lot more to do with it than just immigration, because we're financing some of this militarism against the drug dealers on the borders right now to the tune of over $1 billion. And there is a mess down there, but it's much bigger than just the immigration problem.
In order to secure the southern border, we must increase the number of security personnel and give them the tools that they need to be more effective.
We also need to stop the massive brain drain created when we educate foreign born scientists, mathematicians, and engineers in our greatest institutions and then make them take those excellent and needed skills to their home countries, even if they want to stay here and fill our serious needs for their expertise.
I do not support amnesty, which means an official pardon. Because those here illegally have in fact broken the law, there must be a penalty. However, we must recognize that we simply cannot corral the millions of undocumented persons and deport them. Even to try such a strategy would cost hundreds of billions of dollars and cause portions of our economy to collapse.
"As Branstad should know, the governor of Iowa has no ability to command that the federal government, whose jurisdiction this falls under, to reimburse local governments across Iowa," said a spokeswoman for Culver. "For Iowans, it's just a shift from one tax to another if Terry Branstad were elected."
Branstad acknowledged the possible costs, telling people at his campaign events Wednesday that he does not want Iowans left paying the bill.
A: First and foremost we need to protect and defend our borders. Crossing our borders illegally is a felony. Those persons crossing the border illegally need to be dealt with as felons, not “guests”. Come to our country right or don’t come here at all. I believe in our Melting Pot. However, those folks coming here in search of a better life need to assimilate to our way of life, not the other way around.
A: I deeply regret the way the Republicans are politicizing this issue. They are trying to outdo each other in basically demeaning and attacking those who are here in our country--yes, without documentation--but who are often doing the work that allows raising their families and making a contribution. The answer is comprehensive immigration reform. We have to keep working towards it. Yes, we’ve got to have tougher border security. We do have to crack down on employers who exploit and employee undocumented people. We’ve got to do more to help local communities bear the costs of it. Because they don’t set immigration laws. We’ve got to do more with our neighbors to the south to help them create more economic opportunity for their own people but at the end of the day there has to be an earned path to legalization.
A: Let’s get it straight. Americans will do any job if you pay them properly. That doesn’t mean we don’t need guest workers; we do. But we should base the number of guest workers upon need--not an absolute number. And we should require employers to offer those jobs to citizens to see if they want those jobs. We need agricultural workers; we need H1B visas; we need what in fact exists as a need, not as an artificial number to allow employers to drive down wages.
Q: Does hiring illegal immigrants to do these jobs drive down wages?
A: [Yes, it] drives down wages. But there are a lot of people who will go out and hang drywall and get a decent wage. There are not a lot of people who are going out and do the agricultural work that’s seasonal. So it should be based on need.
A: First of all, I [oppose] these raids, and particularly the way they are being conducted, separating parents from children. I think the bottom line is that we need to reform the laws for immigration in this country so that everybody has a real and meaningful path to citizenship.
DEAN: You have to be a little bit careful about how you do that, otherwise you will have a disproportionate number of people who are Hispanic joining the army simply to do that. So the answer is, if you serve America, yes, you ought to get citizenship. But we have to be very careful just exactly how we offer that so we don’t have an unfair, disproportionate affect on Hispanics in this country who are not citizens.
KUCINICH: First, that we all agree that people ought to have citizenship if they serve this country. We also ought to agree that there ought to be amnesty for anyone who has been working in this country and would otherwise be denied rights. Third, we ought to talk about how the Bush administration’s program that they just announced is really a program for indentured servitude because what they are talking about is locking people into control by corporations.
A: The Immigration Service has been a mess. They do not process these applications quickly. It’s a long, long process that takes far too long than it should. And it needs to be reformed, and we need to make people welcome in this country. If people are applying to be citizens, they need to be treated as customers and it needs to be an expedited process.
A: The federal government needs to help state and local government in dealing with these needs. If children are here, they have to be educated. They have to get basic health care. And the federal government needs to fill some of that need. I agree entirely with what’s been said about earned legalization. If people have been here, obeyed the laws, paid their taxes, worked hard, they deserve the right to be able to get into legal status.
DEAN: You have to be a little bit careful about how you do that, otherwise you will have a disproportionate number of people who are Hispanic joining the army simply to do that. So the answer is, if you serve America, yes, you ought to get citizenship. But we have to be very careful just exactly how we offer that so we don’t have an unfair, disproportionate affect on Hispanics in this country who are not citizens.
KUCINICH: First, that we all agree that people ought to have citizenship if they serve this country. We also ought to agree that there ought to be amnesty for anyone who has been working in this country and would otherwise be denied rights. Third, we ought to talk about how the Bush administration’s program that they just announced is really a program for indentured servitude because what they are talking about is locking people into control by corporations.
A: The whole notion of earned citizenship is something that I strongly support. I would expand the number of legal immigrants that can get into the country, which helps relieve some of this pressure that we have right now. Our relationship with Mexico and Pres. Fox is in the worst shape that we can imagine. And the result of that is, we don’t have the kind of security along our southern border that we need.
A: I am for earned right of legalization for undocumented immigrants. I’m for temporary worker permits for people coming over. I’m for lifting the cap on family reunification which keeps immigrant families apart and I’m for lifting the cap on political refugees. We’re one nation under God, individual, with liberty and justice for all. And that means making sure that our immigrants, new Americans are treated fairly.
A: No.
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| 2020 Presidential contenders on Immigration: | |||
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Democrats running for President:
Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO) V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE) Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC) Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT) Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN) Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ) Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX) Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI) Rep.John Delaney (D-MD) Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA) Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT) CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA) Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Marianne Williamson (D-CA) CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY) 2020 Third Party Candidates: Rep.Justin Amash (L-MI) CEO Don Blankenship (C-WV) Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI) Howie Hawkins (G-NY) Gov.Jesse Ventura (I-MN) |
Republicans running for President:
V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN) Pres.Donald Trump(R-NY) Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL) Gov.Bill Weld(R-MA & L-NY) 2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates: Sen.Stacey Abrams (D-GA) Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC) Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK) Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA) Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO) Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA) Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL) Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA) Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX) Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA) Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA) Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA) | ||
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