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Barack Obama
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"There are legitimate concerns on both sides of the debate. I have met countless Americans who are worried about the constant flow of illegal immigrants not because they are racists or xenophobes, but because they fear that this influx of low-skill workers threatens to depress wages that are already too low. They also rightfully expect their government to control our borders. At the same time, it is both unproductive and untrue to tag as 'amnesty' any proposal that would put the undocumented on a path to earned citizenship, since the bill we're debating would penalize those who broke our laws with steep fines and require them to start their quest for citizenship at the back of the line.... It is also unrealistic to believe that we could actually find and deport all 12 million immigrants, when we don't even know who or where they are."
"This is where we do have a very real difference with [Republicans]. I believe that we can be a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. Now, there is no doubt that we have to get control of our borders. We can't have hundreds of thousands of people coming over to the United States without us having any idea who they are.... I also believe we have to give a pathway to citizenship [to immigrants who are already here] after they've paid a fine and learned English."
"We are not going to ship back 12 million people, we're not going to do it as a practical matter. We would have to take all our law enforcement that we have available and we would have to use it and put people on buses, and rip families apart, and that's not who we are, that's not what America is about. So what I've proposed... is you say we're going to bring these folks out of the shadows. We're going to make them pay a fine, they are going to have to learn English, they are going to have to go to the back of the line...but they will have a pathway to citizenship over the course of 10 years."
"Millions of undocumented immigrants live and work here without our knowing their identity or their background. We need to strike a workable bargain with them. They have to acknowledge that breaking our immigration laws was wrong. They must pay a penalty, and abide by all of our laws going forward. They must earn the right to stay over a 6-year period, and then they must wait another 5 years as legal permanent residents before they become citizens. But in exchange for accepting those penalties, we must allow undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows and step on a path toward full participation in our society."
"[W]e must also replace the flow of undocumented immigrants coming to work here with a new flow of guestworkers. Illegal immigration is bad for illegal immigrants and bad for the workers against whom they compete. Replacing the flood of illegals with a regulated stream of legal immigrants who enter the United States after background checks and who are provided labor rights would enhance our security, raise wages, and improve working conditions for all Americans."
Voted YES on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, which established an immigration guest-worker program
Because border enforcement is tied in many voters' minds with "homeland security," none of the candidates want to be seen as weak on the issue...Sen. Barack Obama, after voting to authorize the structure, voted against a measure that would have accelerated its construction.
Voted NO on the Coburn Amendment (SA 1311) to S. 1348 to increase border control by requiring: construction of a border fence; implementation of US VISIT (entry-exit system); and biometric identification documents. The Coburn Amendment failed by a vote of 42 to 54.
"Well, this is an area [border fence] where Senator Clinton and I almost entirely agree. I think that the key is to consult with local communities, whether it's on the commercial interests or the environmental stakes of creating any kind of barrier...And so I will reverse that policy. As Senator Clinton indicated, there may be areas where it makes sense to have some fencing. But for the most part, having border patrolled, surveillance, deploying effective technology, that's going to be the better approach..."
Voted YES on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, which called for a 370-mile fence along the Mexican border
Voted YES on the construction of a 700-mile fence along the US-Mexican border
"Without modifications, the proposed bill could devalue the importance of family reunification, replace the current group of undocumented immigrants with a new undocumented population consisting of guest workers who will overstay their visas, and potentially drive down wages of American workers."
"A: The federal law is not being enforced not because of failures of local communities, because the federal government has not done the job that it needs to do. Q: But you would allow the sanctuary cities to exist? A: What I would do as president is pass comprehensive immigration reform, and the federal government should be doing what it's supposed to be doing, which is controlling our borders, but also providing a rational immigration system, which we currently don't have."
Voted NO to amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to facilitate information sharing between federal and local law enforcement officials related to an individual's immigration status.
"Employers, I think, should be held accountable for verifying the employment status of the people they are hiring. I don't like a situation where they punish the workers who are trying to get a job to support a family, and the companies get a slap on the wrist and then go out and hire some more."
"Most importantly you have to have a virtual wall that's built where employers essentially have to see a tamper proof identification card in order for them to hire workers, and we've got to enforce that so that if employers are taking advantage of illegal immigrants, they pay a serious fine, and there are consequences to it. We've got employers right now who actually call into Mexico and say, 'I need 500 workers, I don't want to pay the workers in the area where my plant is located the minimum wage,' and essentially use illegal workers as a way of undermining health safety protection laws, minimum wage, and so forth."
"American employers need to take responsibility. Too often illegal immigrants are lured here with a promise of a job, only to receive unconscionably low wages. In the interest of cheap labor, unscrupulous employers look the other way when employees provide fraudulent U.S. citizenship documents."
[W]e've got to be serious about employers' obligations to check to see whether somebody is here legally or not...There hasn't been a serious program of employer sanctions. That has to be put in place.
Sen. Obama is a cosponsor of S. 1917 to establish a mandatory electronic worker verification system
"I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, we need to have English only. They want to pass a law, we just, we want English only...Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English, I agree with this. But understand this, instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, they'll learn English, you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish.”
"Everybody is going to learn to speak English if they live in this country. The issue is not whether or not future generations of immigrants are going to learn English. The question is how can we come up with both a legal, sensible immigration policy."
Voted NO to amend title 4, United States Code, to declare English as the national language of the Government of the United States, and for other purposes.