I've excerpted part of interview regarding illegal immigration. For full interview, click below:
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latimes.com
Obama speaks out in his first newspaper interview
The president-elect discusses Gov. Blagojevich, the economy, Islam and civil rights, among other topics.
December 10, 2008

This is an edited transcript of an interview conducted Tuesday in Chicago with President-elect Barack Obama. The interviewers were Peter Nicholas and Christi Parsons of our Washington bureau and reporter John McCormick of the Tribune.


During the campaign you were critical of the border fence, but I think you voted for it?

I voted for the fence, but argued at the time and continued to argue that it was inadequate and a fence alone, without a broader, comprehensive immigration reform, was not going to work. And I continue to believe that we have to have much stronger border security, crack down on employers that are hiring undocumented workers, but provide a pathway to citizenship for those who have been here and, you know, have put roots down here, and often times have American children. We need to get them out of the shadows and put them on some path to legalization.

Will you support the build-out of the fence and its continued construction?

You know, one of the things I want to do -- and I'm very pleased with [Arizona Gov.] Janet Napolitano as the next head of the Department of Homeland Security, because nobody has more experience on these border issues than she does -- I want to discuss with her what our best options are, what our best strategy is, do an evaluation about what's working, what isn't working. And then we'll make a determination from there.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la ... full.story