Notes

Views of Immigration:
Democrats:
-Large pop. of Democrats are immigrants
-The Democratic view on immigration is based on the idea that the United States is a country based on immigrants, and as such it should value and support its present and future immigrants. The 2012 Democratic Party Platform states, “the Democratic Party stands for comprehensive immigration reform that intelligently prioritizes our country’s security and economic needs.” Democrats believe that in order to embrace the diversity of our country, “we need to fix our broken immigration system.”
-They believe in providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, especially those who were brought here as children. They wish to greatly reform the current immigration laws, stating that “today’s immigration laws do not reflect our values or serve our security, and we will work for real reform. The solution is not to establish a massive new status of second-class workers; that betrays our values and hurts all working people. Undocumented immigrants within our borders who clear a background check, work hard and pay taxes should have a path to earn full participation in America.” Democrats do not believe that just any illegal immigrant should be provided amnesty or a path to citizenship. They state that undocumented workers who “are in good standing must admit that they broke the law, pay taxes and a penalty, learn English, and get right with the law before they can get in line to earn their citizenship.” Democrats do, however, support strong repercussions for those who exploit illegal labor. This process undermines American workers, and Democrats believe that those who do so need to be held accountable.
-Democrats believe in providing priority to immigrants who already have family in the United States, in order to reunite families more quickly. They also hope to “offer more English-language and civic education classes so immigrants can assume all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.” They support a reform of the INS, so that it can provide better services to immigrants. They support investing resources in the INS to reduce the wait time for immigrants, which currently sits at approximately two years, to a more reasonable timeline such as three months. Democrats believe in reforming asylum policies, believing that we should have “equitable asylum policies that treat people the same whether they have fled violence from the Right and Left.” They believe that immigrants are currently facing a lack of due process protections, and wish to see these protections restored, so that immigrants cannot face deportation due to minor offenses, “and are eligible to receive safety net services supported by their tax dollars.”
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Republicans:
-While Democrats believe in supporting a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, Republicans support stronger border patrols and stronger repercussions for those caught in the U.S. illegally, as well as those who employ them or help them falsify documentation. Part of this discrepancy lies in the party’s views on immigrants themselves and their value to the country – 25 percent more Democrats than Republicans believe that immigrants strengthen the U.S. Democrats believe that “Republicans decided to play politics with it rather than do the right thing” when opposing the Dream Act, and have stated that, “Mitt Romney and the Republicans have opposed commonsense reforms and pandered to the far right.” The Obama administration’s website referred to the vote as “heartless,” stating that “these are hundreds of thousands of young people who grew up as Americans after being brought here as kids through no fault of their own,” and that “inaction in the House has cost our country nearly $12 billion.”
-The Republican Party believes in immigration laws and immigration reforms that address the needs of national security. The party has always been divided on to exactly what extent immigration laws should be tightened, but as a whole the party believes that a system needs to be in place to ensure that immigrants who enter this country illegally are not provided with the same benefits that legal citizens are. They believe in warmly welcoming those who enter the country through legal methods, while devoting extra resources to keep out those who try to enter via illegal methods, as well as keeping track of those who enter and when they leave. The party believes that amnesty towards those who have broken immigration laws only encourages future immigrants to enter the country illegally rather than legally. While Republicans recognize that the number of foreign immigrants travelling here has enriched our country, they also believe that requiring them to do so legally is vital to the safety of Americans.
-The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program is an online system designed to help benefit-issuing agencies, institutions, and licensing agencies determine the immigration status of applicants. The Republican Party not only supports the SAVE program, but would like to see it implemented nation-wide. They also support immigration status verifications within the workplace, and believe that verification measures should be made mandatory throughout the country.
-It is a strong belief within the Republican Party that the safety of American citizens lies in knowing who is entering our country. Therefore, Republicans support using biometric data to track immigrants as they enter, stay in, and leave the United States. This can be done via the US VISIT system, which has currently been implemented in over 115 airports, as well as land border crossings. This system would allow the government to not only verify the identity of incoming immigrants, but to track how long they stay in the country, and to ensure that they are not remaining here illegally.

Because it would provide these benefits, the Republican Party is pushing for the US VISIT system to be used at all borders, as well as to increase the use of reconnaissance cameras, border patrol agents, and unmanned aerial flights at borders. They also seek to provide border patrol agents with more advanced technology, tools, structures, and sufficient force to properly secure the borders.
-The party strongly believes that providing amnesty to illegal immigrants only further encourages illegal immigration. The Republican Party seeks stricter penalties for illegal aliens themselves, as well as for those who help smuggle illegal aliens into the country, those who create fraudulent documents to prolong the ability of illegal aliens to stay in the country, and employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. They also support the right of border patrol agents to deport illegal immigrants without giving them a hearing before a judge.

This belief is one that the party has stuck to, even when it meant opposing their own. In the 2004 Republican Platform, the party spoke out saying that President Bush’s plan to implement a new temporary worker program, allowing those working as illegal aliens to apply for citizenship the same way as those applying from outside the country, would only deter those applying from outside the country to go through the proper channels to do so. Republicans stated that this measure would be providing unfair advantages to those who had broken our laws, and would be putting them on par with those who were working hard to obey the law.

Prioritizing Legal Immigrants

Republicans believe that family and skill should be prioritized when granting citizenship to those who go through the proper legal channels to enter the country. Priority should be given to children and spouses of immigrants that are already legally in the country. They believe the government should emphasize the skills that our economy needs most when determining eligibility, and that the Labor Certification Program should be overhauled. These two measures together would help match qualified workers with work that is in urgent need of filling positions in the country. Despite accusations of being anti-immigration, Republicans do understand the value that immigrants bring to this country, when entering via legal methods. In the Republican Platform adopted at the 2000 GOP convention, the Republican Party declared that it supports increasing the number of H-1B visas, to ensure that high-tech workers are provided to specialized positions, as well as expanding the H-2A program for temporary agricultural workers.

Republicans believe that reforming the Immigration and Naturalization Service could streamline this process. If the service were split into two agencies, one to focus on enforcement and one to focus on service, both processes would flow more smoothly, and get more of the attention they need as national issues.

-Republicans and Democrats alike see a current need for immigration reform. 50% of Republicans say they see a need for immigration reform this year, with 53% of Democrats saying the same.

One of the largest differences that the Democratic and Republican Parties have in regards to their ideas on immigration laws is what they believe the policy should be for those here illegally. While House Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi demand a road to citizenship for illegal immigrants, Boehner’s proposed plan discusses no such accommodation. It does, however, look at a road to legally residing in the country, but without the benefits of citizenship. In fact, despite believing that there is a possibility it will reward and encourage illegal behavior, 70% of Republicans actually believe that the country could benefit from having illegal immigrants join the workforce as legal workers. The difference is in whether or not they should be given an opportunity to become full citizens, with Democrats saying yes and Republicans saying no.

That is not to say that no Republicans believe in a road to citizenship. In fact, a recent Gallup poll found that a large percentage of Republicans would support letting illegal immigrants become citizens, after a long waiting period, paying back taxes, passing a criminal background check, and learning English. The poll did note that polls describing in detail the requirements for becoming a citizen gained far more Republican support than polls that either did not mention requirements or did not describe them in detail.

Another inter-party issue with the current proposed reforms is doubt within the Republican Party as to whether or not the current administration will enforce the new immigration laws if they are passed. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart stated in a phone interview that, “Nobody, even those who want to get this done, trusts the President.” This is because one of the most notable immigration-based actions of President Obama has been his halting of the deportation of young undocumented immigrants who would qualify for legalization measures. This action was not approved by Congress prior to the president acting on it. Because of this, the new immigration plan asks for “specific enforcement triggers” to be in place before immigrants can begin the track to legalization – triggers that the Democratic Party fear will be too harsh.

However, Boehner’s plan may have bridged enough gaps to get the Democrats to consider it. When asked about the GOP plan, White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough said that they “feel pretty good about it.” He then went on to say that “we feel pretty good that we’ll get this done this year.”

Many believe that the Republican’s struggle to put forth an immigration reform proposal until this point has greatly harmed the party. Jeb Bush referred to it as a “gateway issue,” which could attract Hispanic and Asian voters, and claimed that a lack of support from the Hispanic voting bloc is was a large factor in the Democratic victory in the last presidential election. Many believe an immigration reform proposal could make or break the Republican chances in the next election.

On illegal immigration[edit]
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This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2014)
There have been various law changes over the years that encouraged immigrants to enter or exit the United States. With the railroad, World War II, and agricultural work force demands, many immigrants saw the opportunity to come to the United States temporarily for money or a better life. An increase in legal immigrants migrating to the United States also led to an increase of undocumented immigrants, especially from Mexico. Most of these immigrants searched for and gained jobs where hard labor was needed. As the immigration population increased American citizens started to worry about their impact on the economy.

The reform did not have a lot of impact on decreasing the immigrant population, "Until 2012, there was virtually no movement in Congress to deal with the problem of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States since the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which granted amnesty to many of the 3.2 million illegal immigrants living in the United States."[7]

"In 1983, the Supreme Court forbade schools and hospitals to deny services based on undocumented immigration status." [8]

On crime[edit]
One study finds that the legalization of three million immigrants reduced crime by 3-5%, primarily property crime.[9] The author finds that this is due to greater job market opportunities for the immigrants.[9]