No "pro-open borders" Republican candidate for President will ever have a serious chance for victory in '08, but Rep. Ron Paul can still bring up issues during the Republican primary season and during the Republican debates that otherwise wouldn't be brought up just by running for President.
No "pro-open borders" Republican candidate for President will ever have a serious chance for victory in '08, but Rep. Ron Paul can still bring up issues during the Republican primary season and during the Republican debates that otherwise wouldn't be brought up just by running for President.Ron Paul is "pro-open borders"?
(OP scratches head in confusion)...
Er... would you say that the following Votes are "Pro Open Borders"?
- Requires the construction of approximately 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border (Sec. 1002)
- Requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to take over operations to maintain and control U.S. borders by upgrading surveillance technology, hiring and training more Border Patrol agents, improving border infrastructure, and deploying more U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel along areas of high immigration entrance within 18 months of enactment (Sec. 101)
- Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to report to Congress the progress of controlling and maintaining U.S. land and maritime borders within one year of enactment (Sec. 101)
- Includes "repeated attempts to enter the country illegally" in the definition of an aggravated felony (Sec. 201)
- Establishes an employment eligibility verification system which requires employers to verify the legal status of each employee or face a penalty for withholding employee information (Sec. 701)
- Sets a civil penalty for employers of $5,000 to $7,500 per undocumented immigrant for failure to comply with requirements of the employment eligibility verification system (Sec. 706)
- Requires the detention of any undocumented immigrant attempting to enter the country after October 1, 2006, until deportation or final decision granting admissions to the U.S. (Sec. 401)
- Increases fines and imprisonment to individuals who smuggle undocumented immigrants into the U.S. ('Sec. 274)
- Creates the Office of Air and Marine Operations to prevent individuals attempting to enter U.S. airspace or waters for the purpose of transporting drugs, human trafficking, and terrorist activities (Sec. 502)
- Ends the Diversity Immigrant Program which randomly selects and grants green cards to individuals awaiting entry into the U.S. (Sec. 1102, as adopted in H Amdt 650)
- $1 billion annually for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (Sec. 224)
- $650 million from 2007 through 2011 for the Institutional Removal Program which ensures that “removable criminals aliens” in prison are removed from the U.S. and not released into communities following the completion of their prison sentence (Sec. 223)
- $250 million annually for state and local police agencies for their assistance in enforcing new immigration laws (Sec. 222)
Because... um... Ron Paul voted "YES" on all those things.
Admittedly, it's always a bit of a shock when Ron Paul ever votes to increase Federal spending on, well, anything; but on this issue, the only difference between his votes and those of Tancredo is that Ron Paul voted against the National ID Card.
FWIW, I happen to agree with Ron Paul on this, and respectfully disagree with Tancredo -- issuing National ID Cards is just too Orwellian a power to grant the Federal Government for the alleged purpose of "stopping illegal immigration", when what the Feds should be doing is stopping illegals at the border... which Ron Paul supports.