Newt Gingrich lays out immigration plan
Urges tightening security before a worker program

By Diana Balazs
The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), October 20, 2006

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... h1020.html

Northeast Valley -- Newt Gingrich has his own plan for tackling illegal immigration, an issue that could help decide state and federal election campaigns in Arizona and across the nation.

The former U.S. House speaker from Georgia who engineered the 1994 Republican takeover of both the House and Senate, spoke Thursday at a $250-a-plate luncheon fund-raiser for U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa.

Hayworth faces Democrat Harry Mitchell and Libertarian Warren Severin for the Congressional District 5 House seat in the Nov. 7 general election.

'I couldn't come here without talking briefly about immigration, where J.D. has shown enormous leadership,' Gingrich said.

'How can you talk about national security and not control the border? How can you talk about terrorism and not control the border?' he asked.

Gingrich said the U.S. House of Representatives' passage of a border-control bill in September is a major step in the right direction.

'I think we should enforce immigration law and we should enforce the businesses that are knowingly hiring somebody illegally, (they) should be hammered, and businesses that are hiring people who have fraudulent documents should have an easy method of determining whether or not that person is legal,' he said.

Gingrich added that the U.S. government doesn't have a clue about how to go about that.

'That's because we haven't made the investment. We haven't been serious, and I have a very simple procedure. We should outsource everything involving the identity of the temporary worker to MasterCard, American Express or Visa because they actually know how to run a program,' he said.

Gingrich said an undocumented worker should be able to become an American citizen, but that person should be required to meet two standards: pass a test on American history in English and give up voting in any other nation.

If the border is controlled, immigration law enforced and standards established for citizenship, there should be a temporary worker program, he said.

Gingrich said it should involve a criminal background check, a biometric identifier, probably a thumbprint or a retinal scan, and a contract signed by the person that if they fail to pay taxes or break the law, they can be removed from the country within 48 hours without appeal to the court system.

He also would like to see 5 percent of a temporary worker's income set aside in a tax-free savings account. The worker could cash out that nest egg when returning home.

'That would guarantee a constant willingness of people to come here and work hard, but also plan to go home and be able to enrich their own country and create their own opportunities economically,' Gingrich said.