Where Presidential Candidates Stand on Illegal Immigration

CAMPAIGN 2012 Where Presidential Candidates Stand on Illegal Immigration
-- PICTURES


By National Journal staff
Updated: April 24, 2012 | 6:16 a.m.
September 30, 2011 | 7:11 p.m.

With Arizona's immigration law hitting the Supreme Court on Tuesday, we take a look at where the presidential candidates stand on illegal immigration.

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Mitt Romney: Romney likened giving in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants to giving subsidies to illegal immigrants. He said he vetoed a similar program when he was governor of Massachusetts. Romney also said he favors completing a high-tech border fence and requiring employers to use electronic databases to verify an employee's legal status.
PHOTO: CHET SUSSLIN

[IMG]<strong>Mitt Romney</strong>: Romney likened giving in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants to giving subsidies to illegal immigrants. He said he vetoed a similar program when he was governor of Massachusetts. Romney also said he favors completing a high-tech border fence and requiring employers to use electronic databases to verify an employee's legal status.

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Ron Paul: If president, Paul has said he would end the automatic granting of citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants, a process that he asserts encourages people to come to the U.S. if only to have children. In keeping with his more general libertarian views, he would also "abolish the welfare state," which he claims is also an incentive for people to come to the U.S. illegally, according to his campaign website. Enhancing border security and preventing "amnesty" programs, among other plans, also rank high on his illegal-immigration platform.


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Newt Gingrich: During a campaign event in Naples, Fla., Gingrich said he is "not for amnesty for anyone. I am not for a path to citizenship for anybody who got here illegally." He did take a more liberal stance during a CNN debate, saying: "I do not believe that the people of the United States are going to take people who have been here a quarter century, who have children and grandchildren, who are members of the community, who may have done something 25 years ago, separate them from their families, and expel them."


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Barack Obama: The president has called for strong border security but acknowledges that current immigration fees are too high. He also says that it's "just not practical" to ship 12 million undocumented immigrants back to their country of origin. He believes in a pathway to citizenship that would have illegal immigrants pay a fine, learn English, and then go "to the back of the line" behind legal citizens.



Where Presidential Candidates Stand on Illegal Immigration -- PICTURES - National Journal staff - NationalJournal.com