Monday, Oct. 06, 2008
5TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Candidates take on immigration policy

The Centre Daily Times asked each of the three candidates for the 5th Congressional District to respond to a set of questions.

Their responses will appear each Monday leading to the election. Here is this week’s question:

Is immigration policy reform needed? Why or why not? If reform is needed, what should that reform be?

Jim Fryman, Libertarian

Legal immigration from all foreign countries, but especially from Latin American countries, must be expedited to reduce illegal immigration and we must increase the presence of non-military border patrol agents. Most illegal immigrants work at minimum wage jobs and we should eliminate the minimum wage so jobs here are not as attractive compared to jobs in their home countries. Immigrants are, and always have been, the lifeblood of our country and have made us great; but all adult immigrants should have to pass a reading and writing test in English. We do not want to end up with the mess that Canada has with two languages.

Mark McCracken, Democrat

Certain steps are needed to reform immigration. One area that needs addressed is when both parents of a newborn are in the United States illegally, the child should not have immediate status as a citizen of the United States. The parents should be required to apply for legal citizenship and only when they achieve legal status should the child be awarded citizenship.

Another area that needs addressed is strict laws must be enforced on businesses that knowingly employ illegal immigrants. When a business is caught employing illegal immigrants, it should receive severe punishment in the form of fines and public sanctions. If businesses refrain from employing illegal immigrants, it would lessen the influx of illegal immigrants coming into the country.

Glenn Thompson, Republican

Immigration reform is needed! We must stop the flow of illegal immigrants that is straining so many government programs. Beside financial cost to our country, the open borders have also allowed drug trafficking and security risks such as terrorists bringing weapons of mass destruction across our borders. The current legal immigration process needs reformed too.

The Thompson immigration plan will see us through this challenge:

•Secure our borders including increasing the resources of the border patrol, building fences and use of resources such as electronic monitoring.

•Expedite the legal immigration process and make the process of legal immigration and temporary work status easier. Temporary worker programs need revised to assure that our agriculture and other industries are able to access labor.

•Enforce our laws. We are a nation that follows the rule of law. Enforcing our laws will serve as an example for all those who are here illegally.

http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/884025.html