Blanco County Republican Party-Ann Hall, Chairman

McCain on Border Security and Immigration

We must prove we have the resources to secure our borders and use them, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States. When we have achieved our border security goal, we must enact and implement the other parts of practical, fair, and necessary immigration policy. John McCain

John McCain believes that the U.S .immigration system is broken and plans a two step process is required to reform it.

Step One: Secure our borders first by:

• Setting clear guidelines and objectives for securing the border with physical and virtual barriers.

• Ensuring adequate funding is provided for resources on the ground for training facilities, support staff, and the use of technology.

• Providing funding to US Attorney’s offices in Border States.

• Using unmanned Aerial Vehicles and other aircraft to patrol certain areas of the borders.

• Continue implementation of the US-VISIT comprehensive visitor security program.

Step Two: Prosecute employers that continue to hire illegal immigrants. His plans include a “real time” Electronic Employment Verification System that will:

• Establish an easy to use system to check a worker’s identity.

• Provide responses to employer inquiries in a timely manner to provide both employer and employee security in their hiring decisions.

• Keep accurate, current data in employment verification databases.

• Provide employers and employees time and opportunity to correct possible errors with any information in the system.

• Weed out abusive employers through audits by the Department of Labor.

• Do a proper accounting of all social security numbers and notifying citizens whose number is being used illegally.

In addition to the two-step plan discussed above, McCain will meet America’s labor need with temporary worker programs for needed workers in the high tech and low skilled sectors while protecting employment opportunities for U.S. workers.

All undocumented individuals in the U.S. will be required to enroll in a program to resolve their status. All undocumented aliens either leave or follow the path to legal residence. No green cards will be issued to illegal workers before issuing cards to those who have been legally waiting outside the country. The program will provide a system that is fair, humane, realistic and ensures the rights of the individual and family.

Blanco County Democratic Party-Barbara Hudson, Chairman

Barak on Immigration

The number of undocumented immigrants in the country has increased more than 40% since 2000. Every year more than a half-million people come illegally or illegally overstay their visa. The immigration bureaucracy is broken and overwhelmed, forcing legal immigrants to wait years for applications and despite a sevenfold increase in recent years, immigration raids only netted 3,600 arrests in 2006.

Obama supports preserving the integrity of our borders. He supports additional personnel and infrastructure, better technology and real-time intelligence on the border and at our ports of entry. We can improve our immigration system by increasing the number of legal immigrants, keeping families together and meeting the demand for jobs that employers cannot otherwise fill.

Obama championed a proposal to crack down on employers that hire undocumented immigrants by creating an employment eligibility verification system so employers can verify employees are legally eligible to work in the U.S. He joined Rep. Gutierrez (D-IL) to introduce the Citizenship Promotion Act to ensure that immigration application fees are both fair and reasonable and he also introduced legislation that passed the Senate to improve the speed and accuracy of FBI background checks.

Obama supports a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens. He believes and will work to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.

Honor our Immigrant Troops: About 69,300 foreign-born men and women serve in the U.S. armed forces, roughly 5 percent of the total active-duty force. Of those, 43 percent – 29,800 – are not U.S. citizens. The Pentagon says more than 100 immigrant soldiers have died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama believes that legal immigrants who have fought for us overseas should have expedited procedures towards citizenship.