From change.gov, the transition team’s website:

• Obama and Biden want to preserve the integrity of our borders. They support additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.
• Obama and Biden believe we must 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.
• Obama and Biden will remove incentives to enter the country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.
• Obama and Biden support a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.
• Obama and Biden believe we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.

Essentially, this is the same plan that John McCain and George Bush supported until 2007 and congressional Republicans opposed. With the Democrats dominating Congress for at least the next two years, comprehensive immigration reform may have a chance. Will John McCain reverse his position and support it again?

(Photo: change.gov)

In Denver tonight Sen. Barack Obama will accept the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. Sen. Joe Biden accepted the nomination for vice president last night. Though neither has spent much time talking about immigration, it is sure to come up some time after the next president takes office. With that in mind, how have Obama and Biden stood on the issue in the past?

Obama famously accused rural Pennsylvanians of “cling[ing] to… antipathy to people who aren’t like them,” and he has long called for anti-illegal immigration rhetoric to be toned down. He supports a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, but he would also crack down on employers that hire them and tighten border security, including with a border fence. He voted “yes” on comprehensive immigration reform and on a guest worker program, and he supports the DREAM Act, which would allow illegal immigrant children who graduate from U.S. schools to attain legal status if they attend college or join the military.

Veep pick Biden also backed comprehensive immigration reform, declaring, “Our immigration system is broken and we have an obligation to work on it until we fix it. The immigration bill isn’t perfect, but it’s an important step forward.” Though not a fan of the guest worker program, he voted to give guest workers under such a program a path to citizenship and supported the DREAM Act.

Both the Democrats take a stance similar to current president George W. Bush (and Republican nominee John McCain) on immigration. But even with support from both sides of the aisle, fervent protest kept Bush from passing his reform bill. Would things be any different for a President Obama? Share your thoughts.