Thread: Dole shifts immigration focus from D.C. to local enforcement

Sorry if this has been posted previously.

Sen. Dole deserves our support. Note her excellent grades from Numbers:

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/tes ... VIPID=1078
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Dole shifts immigration focus from D.C. to local enforcement

Posted: Apr. 29, 2008
Updated: Apr. 29 9:48 p.m.

Raleigh, N.C. — Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole has focused more on local enforcement of existing immigration laws than Washington deal making since making a key vote last year that helped stall bipartisan reform of the country's immigration system.

Her critics, including two Democrats now running for her seat, argue she walked away from the negotiating table at a critical point of a nationwide debate, in favor of working with local officials who shouldn't have to enforce federal laws.

But Dole said enforcement comes first, and she vows to address it before returning to the issue in Congress.

"When you're against something, you need to let people know what it is you're for," Dole said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

The first-term senator from Salisbury is pushing to expand a long-dormant federal program - known as 287(g) - that allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to train local law authorities in enforcing the laws, using databases to check immigration status of arrestees and beginning deportation proceedings.

About 400,000 illegal immigrants live in North Carolina, according to a 2006 study conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, a national nonpartisan research group based in Washington. Some state authorities and officials complain they take up space in jails and are a drain on state resources.

Five counties in the state, including Charlotte's Mecklenburg County, are participating and have identified thousands of undocumented aliens in custody.

It's popular with North Carolina Republicans - and more than a few Democrats - but not the two leaders in the state's May 6 primary for the Democratic ticket challenging Dole.

"This is another unfunded federal mandate," said state Sen. Kay Hagan of Greensboro. "We're not saying that we need to be the IRS agents and collect federal taxes. Why are we now being asked on a state level to be immigration officers? The federal government must provide the necessary employees to do this job."

Dole noted the program is voluntary, adding that she has supported additional funding for federal immigration officials.

Chapel Hill entrepreneur Jim Neal, Hagan's top Democratic rival, said the program may jeopardize the ability of local authorities to work with Hispanic communities by creating an unnecessary fear that seeking help from police will lead to immigration trouble.

"I think it's undercutting our law enforcement capability, which is already stretched, quite frankly," Neal said. "I don't think that it's appropriate for local law enforcement authorities to be used - to be deputized - to conduct the activities we're paying federal tax dollars to do."

Dole won points with conservatives last year by switching her vote on an amendment to the immigration reform effort led by President Bush and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. The amendment's success ultimately triggered the overall measure's demise.

Dole said she grew disenchanted with the bill after unsuccessfully trying to dull its centerpiece, which would have provided illegal immigrants with a path to citizenship.

She wanted the measure to focus more on controlling illegal immigration at its roots. In her interview with the AP, Dole declined to say whether she'd consider giving illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship after enforcement is improved.

"You can't fix the leaky pipe until you shut off the water," Dole said. "So the first thing you have to do is to secure the borders and enforce the laws."

Neither Hagan nor Neal would say how they would have voted on the congressional bill, but both said it provided a forum for discussion and negotiation that Dole should not have abandoned. Hagan opposes what she deems "amnesty" for illegal immigrants, but she declined to outline a specific immigration plan other than saying it would have to include broad reforms.

Neal supports allowing illegal immigrants to pay a fine and get in line to gain citizenship.

"They are an integral part of our economy," Neal said. "And I tell folks, 'If you don't believe me, go talk to a farmer.' To suggest that we are going to be able to round up 12 million people and send them back is a recipe for economic suicide."

He also opposes building more fences on the borders, arguing technology can be used to patrol them.

"Fences send the wrong signals," Neal said. "When I think of walls, I think of the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China. I don't think of that being a signal of a country that's opening and Democratic - a melting pot."

Hagan and Neal are leading polls and fundraising ahead of three other Democrats - Lexington trucker Duskin Lassiter, Lumberton attorney Marcus Williams and Moncure podiatrist Howard Staley. But Hagan leads Neal in fundraising since January and has bought statewide TV ads ahead of the primary.

Dole is holding a wide lead over challenger Pete Di Lauro in her primary.

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/2810794/

We need more politicians like her.

You can count on Senator Dole receiving ALIPAC's endorsement.

W

I sent Senator Dole an e-mail telling her how grateful I am to have her in our Senate! She ROCKS!!

I am so sick of hearing of the Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China being compared to our border fence!

The Berlin Wall was erected to keep their own citizens from escaping East Germany and the Great Wall of China is one of the greatest wonders of the world.

How about we compare the success of border walls? Israel's wall comes to mind, and we should have on like theirs.

We still have Patriots on the right side of the law

Here's Sen. Dole's campaign website if anyone wants to get involved. She's exactly the type of person we need in the Senate:

http://www.elizabethdole.org/