Mccain on................................IMMIGRATION.

McCain's recent decisions:

• Voted YES on comprehensive immigration reform. (Jun 2007)
• Voted YES on declaring English as the official language of the US government. (Jun 2007)
• Voted YES on building a fence along the Mexican border. (Sep 2006)
• Voted YES on establishing a Guest Worker program. (May 2006)
• Voted YES on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security. (May 2006)
• Voted YES on giving Guest Workers a path to citizenship. (May 2006)
• Voted YES on allowing more foreign workers into the US for farm work. (Jul 1998)
• Voted YES on visas for skilled workers. (May 1998)
• Voted YES on limit welfare for immigrants. (Jun 1997)

(taken from Ontheissues.com also!)

He has several propositions for solving the Illegal Immigration problems the US is facing.
The US would send back all recent illegal immigrants to their native countries. Immigrants that have been in the US longer would go through a touchback system.
Touchback would force the illegal immigrants be deported to their original country and check that they have not committed any type of crimes through a background check. For reentry they would get in line behind other trying to enter the US legally. McCain says they deserve no special treatment to get back into the US since they broke the law. These people would have to reenter through the naturalization process; learn the English language, know the Constitution, and take the naturalization exam. I believe this is both fair to American citizens and actually fair to those that entered illegally.

Some may think that McCain is being harsh, and to an extent, isn’t that what is needed? McCain isn’t really insensitive, he believes it is a complicated situation. He doesn’t want to send back people who are elderly and have lived her for more than the majority of their life. He does take into account people’s family, but does intend on enforcing laws to the best of his ability.

Obama on Immigration Drama

"We need stronger border security. We are cracking down on employers that are taking advantage of undocumented workers because they can't complain if they're not paid a minimum wage and not getting overtime. Worker safety laws are not being observed. We have to make sure that doesn't lead to people with Spanish surnames being discriminated against. We have to require that undocumented workers go to the back of the line, so that they are not getting citizenship before those who have applied legally." -Obama

He believes that the Immigration Bureaucracy is Broken. That the problems is the immigration bureaucracy is broken and overwhelmed, forcing legal immigrants to wait years for applications. His solution for this problem is to fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill.

Some of his recent actions have been:

• Voted YES on continuing federal funds for declared "sanctuary cities". (Mar 2008)
• Voted YES on comprehensive immigration reform. (Jun 2007)
• Voted NO on declaring English as the official language of the US government. (Jun 2007)
• Voted YES on building a fence along the Mexican border. (Sep 2006)
• Voted YES on establishing a Guest Worker program. (May 2006)
• Voted YES on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security. (May 2006)
• Voted YES on giving Guest Workers a path to citizenship. (May 2006)

(information taken from Ontheissues.org)

Ol' Hillary on Immigration

On her website, Clinton lists the actions she has taken on immigration:

• She championed the Legal Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act, which would give states the option to provide federally funded Medicaid and SCHIP benefits to low-income legal immigrant children and pregnant women.
• She wrote the Access to Employment and English Acquisition Act to meet the growing demand for English language courses and other job skills.
• She strongly supports the DREAM Act, which provides a path to citizenship through military service or higher education for children who were brought to the U.S. by their parents.
• She offered an amendment to make family reunification the guiding principle of our immigration system.

She believes that the current Immigration system is ineffective and needs to refurbished. Clinton also wants tougher penalties for employers and business that are hiring illegal immigrants. She is "passionate" toward families, and doesn't wish to separate them. Hillary thinks that the reform begins with a fence on the Mexican border. She supports the creation of a new system to verify employment eligibility.

Boring but Necessary facts!

Naturalization can mean different things for separate countries. In one country an individual may acquire a new nationality, but still not be considered a citizen.

There isn’t a restriction like that in the United States. There is support in the Constitution in the Fourteenth Amendment which affirms that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" and liable in the U.S. jurisdiction are citizens. Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution allows Congress the power to enact uniform naturalization laws. Under the first American statute (1790) all unindentured white males who had lived in the United States for two years might become citizens. The period of residence was lengthened to five years in 1795 and, as a result of xenophobic, or fear of foreigners, they extended it to 14 years in 1798. In 1802, the term was then reduced back to the original five years, and has remained that way to this day.

The petitioner for naturalization must meet several requirements:
Ability to speak English
Must swear to support the constitution
“Adjudged of good moral Character”

Children:
Under 18 become citizens automatically upon naturalization of one or both of parents
Minors adopted abroad by a citizen automatically become citizens (Child Citizenship Act 2000)

The process of naturalization in some situations is altered for members of the United States Armed Forces, and for the spouses of American citizens. There are exceptions made by bills passed in Congress regarding private immigration and naturalization. There have been whole populations naturalized. Some examples are the allowance of citizenship in U.S. history for the people of the Virgin Islands, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Texas.