What Are the Candidates Saying About Immigration Reform? Hillary Clinton
posted in Candidates, Hillary Clinton (D), Immigration, Issues |Original source: http://www.dmiblog.net/archives/2007/01/what_are_the_candidates_saying_1.html
Of all of the candidates that have entered the race so far, Hillary Clinton is probably one of the most outspoken on the issue of immigration
One of her most quoted remarks about immigrants was made in 2004 when she criticized the Bush administration for not doing enough on border control and said, “I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants.” This, of course, was widely quoted and spread across the blogosphere like wildfire. When the immigration debate heated up last spring, advocates criticized Clinton for not speaking out against the draconian House bill 4437 soon enough and for not taking enough of a leadership role in the debate around immigration reform. Ultimately, however, she was an outspoken critic of the bill, which she said would “literally criminalize . . . . probably even Jesus himself,” when referring to the provision that would have made illegal entry into the U.S. a felony. Clinton said it would be “an unworkable scheme to try to deport 11 million people, which you have to have a police state to try to do.”
Although most remember the Senate bill for its provisions creating a “path to citizenship”, Ms. Clinton never shied away from her focus on border control. “A country that cannot control its borders is failing at one of its fundamental obligations,” she said of America’s “broken system.”
In addition to supporting the Senate bill, Clinton has called for a guest worker program and endorsed and voted for “the Fence Bill.” In fact, she supported enacting the border enforcement piece of any legislation before putting into law a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants despite the Democratic leadership’s insistence that the two measures be enacted simultaneously. In December she voted for the “Secure Fence Act of 2006″, which included only the enforcement piece. She has also suggested that she would support a national identification card to crack down on illegal immigration.
