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Clinton casts immigration as a Social Security fix
He tells LULAC convention legalizing 250,000 aliens a year could prop system
BY ANDREW DEMILLO ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

The Bush administration should consider legalizing hundreds of thousands of immigrants as a way to bolster Social Security, former President Clinton told the nation’s largest Hispanic organization Friday.
Addressing more than 1,200 people at the League of United Latin American Citizens convention in Little Rock, Clinton said legalizing 250,000 illegal immigrants would add more workers under 55 to help keep the retirement system solvent.
"I think those of you who want immigration reform should look at Social Security," Clinton said at the Statehouse Convention Center. "If we legalized another 250,000 immigrants a year, it would solve more than half the shortfall of the Social Security system."
During his 48-minute speech, Clinton called for a more welcoming policy toward immigration and criticized the Minutemen, a group of vigilantes guarding the U.S. border with Mexico.
"We need to find a way to secure our borders without being anti-immigrant," Clinton said. "We need to keep bringing in new blood to this country."
Clinton’s speech capped the fifth day of the six-day convention in Little Rock of the Hispanic group, known as LULAC, from its initials. The day, which began with the news of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s resignation from the high court, featured reminders from political leaders of the progress Hispanics have made politically.
At least three Hispanic men have been mentioned as possible successors to O’Connor’s seat â€â€