Candidate Positions

Original source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151631,00.html

RICHARDSON: I think the president proposed a step in the right direction. What he has said is there should be a guest-worker program for three years. You re-apply. You go back.

I would go one step further. I think what is also needed is some clear path toward some type of legal status, legalization.

We have an immigration system that’s broken. We have 10 million illegal immigrants in America, 25 percent in the last two years.

So if you have an earned legalization program that has benchmarks of law-abidingness, that has benchmarks of working hard, and you combine it with tough law enforcement, more border guards, a crackdown on illegal smuggling, better detection of those that overstay their visas, stolen/lost passports — what is needed is a comprehensive immigration reform, not piecemeal, punitive measures.

Original source: http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060403-floor_statement_of_senator_barack_obama_on_immigration_reform/index.html

Floor Statement of Senator Barack Obama on Immigration Reform
Monday, April 3, 2006

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to enter the debate on comprehensive immigration reform. It is a debate that will touch on the basic questions of morality, the law, and what it means to be an American.

I know that this debate evokes strong passions on all sides. The recent peaceful but passionate protests that we saw all across the country–500,000 in Los Angeles and 100,000 in my hometown of Chicago–are a testament to this fact, as are the concerns of millions of Americans about the security of our borders.

But I believe we can work together to pass immigration reform in a way that unites the people in this country, not in a way that divides us by playing on our worst instincts and fears.

Like millions of Americans, the immigrant story is also my story. My father came here from Kenya, and I represent a State where vibrant immigrant communities ranging from Mexican to Polish to Irish enrich our cities and neighborhoods. So I understand the allure of freedom and opportunity that fuels the dream of a life in the United States. But I also understand the need to fix a broken system.

When Congress last addressed this issue comprehensively in 1986, there were approximately 4 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. That number had grown substantially when Congress again addressed the issue in 1996. Today, it is estimated that there are more than 11 million undocumented aliens living in our country.