The Democratic National Convention commenced today, and it’s an occasion to take a look at the official Democratic platform (PDF) and what it has to say about immigration. Though party platforms don’t necessarily lead to much in the way of legislation, they indicate where the party stands on issues. This year the Democrats are taking a strong stand in favor of a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and against a guest worker program. From the platform:
…our current immigration system has been broken for far too long. We need comprehensive immigration reform, not just piecemeal efforts. We must work together to pass immigration reform in a way that unites this country, not in a way that divides us by playing on our worst instincts and fears. We are committed to pursuing tough, practical, and humane immigration reform in the first year of the next administration.
The Dems also have strong words about border security:
We cannot continue to allow people to enter the United States undetected, undocumented, and unchecked. The American people are a welcoming and generous people, but those who enter our country’s borders illegally, and those who employ them, disrespect the rule of the law. We need to secure our borders, and support additional personnel, infrastructure, and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.
But they condemn the recent spate of immigration raids, calling for more enforcement against employers.
… we need to crack down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. It’s a problem when we only enforce our laws against the immigrants themselves, with raids that are ineffective, tear apart families, and leave people detained without adequate access to counsel.
And they call for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants:
For the millions living here illegally but otherwise playing by the rules, we must require them to come out of the shadows and get right with the law. We support a system that requires undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, pay taxes, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens. They are our neighbors, and we can help them become full tax-paying, law-abiding, productive members of society.
Will these planks amount to real immigration reform if Barack Obama is elected in November? Share your thoughts in comments.
(Photo illustration from the DNC)
2 responses so far ↓
1 Jerry // Sep 11, 2008 at 12:30 pm
We need to reform immigration, my wife and the mother of our American citizen children has been here in the United States since 1997, she has been able to work because of TPS protection for Honduras. She has a very good paying job, speaks and writes in English. But since she came to the country illegally she can not change her status. People like her do not have legal means to get into this country from their country because their governments do not issue visas for their citizens to have access to the USA legally. Their needs to be reform for people that come to this country and are an asset to society by paying taxes and contributing to the economic growth by bringing new talented workers to the USA. Dividing our family for several years, her leaving her job, causing financial and emotional stress especially on the children to leave the country and wait for me to file a visa for her to come back in is counter productive. This causes financial strain for families and does not help the immigration system by causing more paper work, more money being spent on deporting these people, then they have to reapply causing more paper work to get the proper visa from the United States to re enter the USA.
2 Pam // Dec 4, 2008 at 9:06 am
Jerry,
Why didn’t you take your wife back to Honduras and try to being her back up to the USA legally BEFORE she had children. Trouble is she and perhaps you if you’re their dad, thought the easy way to citizenship would be to have a kid or two. She was illegal and is still illegal regardless of having US citizen children. At some point we have to face our errors and pay the dues for them. This isn’t easy but she broke the law.
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