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2008 Elections

Immigration: Republican Candidates

Posted on Thursday October 25, 2007

Former Mayor Rudolf Giuliani

The first part of the executive order points out that the police should report all illegals suspected of committing a crime, or who have committed a crime.

In fact, the year before I was mayor, the immigration service stopped taking names from the police department of people that the police department were reporting.

So the problem that I had was, I had 400,000 illegal immigrants, roughly, in New York City. And I had a city that was the crime capital of America. I had to do something intelligent with them.

…So what I did was, I said -- and I think this a sensible policy: If you are an illegal immigrant in New York City and a crime is committed against you, I want you to report that.

GIULIANI: Because lo and behold, the next time a crime is committed, it could be against a citizen or a legal immigrant. I said, if you are a child in New York City, of which we had 40,000 to 50,000 to 60,000 illegal immigrant children, did it make sense to leave them on the streets?

The federal government deported only 758 people that year from New York City.

So the reality is, my programs and policies led to a city that was the safest large city in the country, so they must have been sensible policies.

… So the reality is that we do have to stop illegal immigrants from coming in at our borders. It is a national priority. And a physical fence isn't going to do the whole thing.

We need a technological fence. We need photographic equipment, heat-seeking equipment, motion detection equipment. It all exists. It didn't exist 10 years ago, didn't exist 20 years ago. It exists today. Other countries do it.

And we need a tamper-proof single ID card for every single person who's in this country from a foreign country.

And if we can secure our borders, end illegal immigration, we will then be able to do what Governor Huckabee is talking about with legal immigrants. We want to encourage legal immigration. And we want to end illegal immigration.

September 5, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Durham, NH

Gov. Mike Huckabee

I don't believe the average American resents that people want to come here. I've said oftentimes we ought to get on our knees every night and thank God that we still live in a country that people are trying to break into, not one they're trying to break out of.

But securing the border is something I think every one of us agree on. You've got to have a secure border because otherwise our borders are not only open to illegal immigrants, but to somebody bringing a suitcase with a dirty bomb.

But, more importantly, if we're going to deal with the supply, you touch it at the point of the demand. And until something is done to touch the people who are employing illegal immigrants because of the very reason that they've talked about on this stage, to create what amounts to another version of slave labor, then we're never going to stop the flow.

You're not going to get illegals to admit that they're here illegally, because they're desperate enough to do anything to feed their families.

What we have to do is to start putting the penalty on the people who are most benefiting from them, the employers who are using those laborers in order to keep from having to pay decent wages.

September 27, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Baltimore, MD

Rep. Duncan Hunter

Folks that are here illegally have to leave and let me tell you why. Today, if you're a dry wall contractor and you play by the rules and you pay $27 a loaded hour for each of your employees, you will be constantly under-cut by contractors who use people who are here illegally.

That's not fair to Americans who play by the rules. And we just talked jobs a few minutes ago. That's one reason you have, in certain areas, especially in the construction trades now, higher levels of unemployment.

You have to build a border fence and you've got to have a real border, not just for immigration issues, but also because of security issues.

And right now, I wrote the law that extends that border fence 854 miles across Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and California. We need to build the border fence. It's the law. And when people come to this country, they've got to knock on the front door, because the back door's going to be closed.

September 27, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Baltimore, MD

Sen. John McCain

Look, this is an emotional and passionate issue, and one that -- very seldom have I seen an issue that aroused this much passion with the American people.

No one, by the way, is for amnesty. I and the president of the United States, both of us from border states, came forward with a plan that we thought was comprehensive and workable with the priority being border security, which remains my position.

Why we failed is because the American people have lost trust and confidence in us -- our failure in Katrina, our failures in Iraq, our failures to control runaway spending. And so we failed.

So, obviously, we have to succeed. Because there's 12 million people who are in this country illegally, which is de facto amnesty, and we need a temporary worker program.

I commit to securing the borders first. We can secure those borders. As president, I would have the border state governors certify that those borders were indeed secure.

… The proposal that we had would require fines, would require back in the line, would require deportation for some. It would require others to go back to the country of their origin. It would require an enormous amount before anyone, as long as 13 years, could even be eligible for citizenship in this country.

There's 12 million people who are here illegally. We were trying to find a way to identify, track, deport those necessary, and those who have been here for some 40 or 50, then give them, after everybody else whose come here legally, a place in line behind everybody else. It was a comprehensive proposal.

I was in Baghdad over the 4th of July and I was present at a ceremony where 688 brave, young Americans re-enlisted. 128 brave, young Americans who were green card holders were given citizenship in this country.

Two of them that were supposed to be there had sacrificed their lives prior to that. These people -- these people are brave, they're wonderful and they want to be citizens of this country. And I'm proud of them.

September 5, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Durham, NH

Rep. Ron Paul

I also think that it's pretty impractical to get an army in this country to round up 12 or maybe 20 million. But I do believe that we have to stick to our guns on obeying the law, and anybody who comes in here illegally shouldn't be rewarded. And that would be the case.

But I see the immigration problem as a consequence of our welfare state. Welfare because we encourage people not to work here, but the welfare we offer the people who come -- they get free medical care. They get free education. They bankrupt our hospitals. Our hospitals are closing. And it shouldn't be rewarded. That means that if you don't round them up, you don't reward them, you don't give them citizenship. At the same time, you can't solve this problem until you have -- you get rid of the welfare state, because in a healthy economy, immigrants wouldn't be a threat to us. There would probably be a desire for more, because we would be starved for workers.

But today, they have become scapegoated because of the weak economy and the lowering of our standard of living.

September 27, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Baltimore, MD

Gov. Mitt Romney

Secondly, with regards to sanctuary cities, the governors aren't responsible for mayors who are not following the law. And, actually, in my case, as soon as I learned about a program in the department of ICE that we could have our state police authorized to enforce the law, I did just that so that in sanctuary cities in our state -- and nonsanctuary cities -- the law would be enforced.

But this is a place where Mayor Giuliani and I just simply disagree. I think we should reduce federal funding to cities that call themselves sanctuary cities.

I think saying as he did, if you happen to be an undocumented alien, we want you in New York, we'll protect you in New York, I think that contributed to 3 million illegals in this country becoming 12 million illegals coming into this country.

And I also disagree on the issue of what I'll call amnesty. And that is, I just don't think you say to people who've come here illegally that if you work here, we're going to sign you up. That's the wrong answer. Amnesty is not the right answer for this problem.

… First of all, the Z visa that was offered in that Senate bill let everybody who's here illegally, other than criminals, stay here for the rest of their lives. And that may not be technically amnesty, but it is certainly amnesty in fact.

I was at the San Diego border and met with our border patrol agents. They told me that more than half of those that try and come across those fences are able to do so. They said there's no way to stop them at the border unless you close down the magnets.

And the magnets are sanctuary cities and having employers sign people up that have come here illegally to do work here. You have to end sanctuary cities. You have to cut back on federal funding to cities that continue to call themselves sanctuary cities and welcome people in, as New York has done.

And you have to say to employers that hire people illegally, that's also going to be sanctioned.

This is the way we're going to have to finally -- and the other key point is this, which is having amnesty and saying to individuals, as the mayor has said, if you come here and you're willing to work here and pay taxes, we'll sign you up. That's not the right message. We've got to enforce the law, welcoming legal immigration, but ending illegal immigration.

September 5, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Durham, NH

Rep. Thomas Tancredo

Twelve million to 20 million people in this country illegally. Then that is the ultimate question, is: What do we do about that situation today, because we can all rave about how we're going to secure the borders -- which I'm glad to hear, by the way, these newfound positions with regard to the borders and security?

Great. Happy they're there.

But you're right, what are the -- the real issue is: What do we do about the people here? And I will tell you, when you use phrases like "rounding them up," I mean, it -- those are -- they are improperly used in this respect. Because we're not talking about rounding people up.

If you, in fact, simply enforce the law -- I know that's a scary topic sometimes and a controversial attitude to take -- but enforcing the law, especially against hiring people who are here illegally, you will see people returning home, voluntarily.

It's happening today in states all over this nation. That's exactly the key to this. You do not have to round people up. You simply have to enforce the law.

September 27, 2007
Transcript, Republican Presidential Debate, Baltimore, MD