Political Parties On Immigration

Which parties want to stop all illegal immigration?

On paper both parties are against illegal immigration. Both parties are not in favor of people breaking the law or violating our immigration laws in order to get into the country. That being said, the Republican constituencies of social conservatives, especially in the South and Midwest, are definitely prioritized enforcing the border and stopping illegal immigration, and putting more resources, and wanting the government to pay attention to stopping illegal immigration more. Democratic constituencies; liberals, modern liberals and others are less willing to prioritize stopping illegal immigration. And actually are more willing to consider alternatives to simply stopping illegal immigration as a law enforcement issue.

Which parties want to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants?

Officially neither the Republicans or the Democrats, and this is an issue that crosses party lines as we saw with George W. Bush when he proposed his Comprehensive Immigration Reform which a lot of social conservatives and the conservative constituency labeled as amnesty right. Now George W. Bush, his administration, his supporters and the Democrats who supported him didn't call it amnesty and they won't call it amnesty, they'll just call it either a more modern or realistic approach to the people who are here, now what are we going to do with them that whole sort of thing. So officially, neither party. However the conservative constituency is more willing to look at things like deportation, look at things like taking just a strict law enforcement stance of preventing people from coming over, more willing to put strict penalties on fines and even jail terms for businesses that flout the law and hire illegal immigrants definitely the conservative constituents are more willing to go that route. Whereas the more liberal constituencies are more willing to say you're here you're working we're not going to deport, you we're not going to send you back right away or anything like that. We're going to give you a path to citizenship so that you can come forward and we can legitimize you in some way. Now that can be called amnesty and lots of people do call it amnesty but the people who support say no this is not amnesty, they will pay a fine or they will have to go back to their country for a certain period of time or there will be a penalty.

What are the major party positions on border security?

Republicans and conservative constituents and their conservative constituencies, especially their conservative constituencies, are definitely more in favor of increasing border security, of increasing the amount of law enforcement people we have on the border, and of building a border fence, which is the idea you build a fence and then a space and then another fence and then a space, and another fence all along the border to prevent illegal crossings. Regardless of what individual Republican politicians think, a lot of their constituency prioritizes this, and they have to pay attention to it. Democratic constituencies not so much, so the Democrats not so much.

What are the major party positions on health care for illegal immigrants?

Now one of the problems that the political parties -- or the American political system has to deal with, is illegal immigrants who are here are humans, and if they get hit by a bus or have some sort of an ailment, they're human beings and they need help. And so it's a real conundrum as to what to do about that and really I don't think either party has a good solution tat they're proposing, I think the Democratic party and liberals in general are more willing-- a lot of Democrats, a lot of liberals are more willing to say yeah we've got to have to help them, so let's just make it official that they're going to have some sort of health insurance or health care because of that's the way it works. Whereas conservatives and Republicans, many of them are more willing to take a little bit more of a hardline stance and say obviously if they need emergency care and other things I'm not going to turn them away. But in terms of doctor visits and preventative care and that sort of thing-- you know what, they're here illegally, they're not part of the system, and so they don't get the benefits of the system and if we give them health care, it creates an incentive for more people to break the law and come here illegally.

What are the major party positions on education for illegal immigrants?

Now, education's different; it's not quite as difficult an issue as something like healthcare, because you're not dealing with the human suffering aspect of it. A lot of the issues with illegal immigration in education is the idea that they are here, they're contributing to the economy, we can't just deport everybody, so, by giving them an education we give them increased tools to assimilate or to function in our system and increased ability to gain jobs, to acquire jobs, to move up in jobs and to not be shut out of the system and turn to criminal acts, so education really gets dicey when it comes to the children of illegal immigrants, somebody who was four or five years old when their parents dragged them across the border over here who, really, you can't really assign blame to. You can assign blame to their parents, but not to them, so, that becomes a dicey issue and Democrats are much more willing to say, listen, the children, it's not their fault, let's give them a chance. Whereas, Republicans are more willing to say, yeah, they're in a bad situation, it sucks, but at the same time we don't want to create unnecessary incentives for people to continue to break the law and cross the border illegally.