State of Rhode Island Archives: on Immigration

Bob Flanders: Control our borders & prevent visa overstays, as first step

• Establish better control over our nation's borders and prevent visa overstays as a first step in comprehensive immigration reform.
• Curb the illegal employment by updating the federal verification system.
• Enact legislation that will provide certainty to DACA children, so that they can remain in the United States without at the same time granting amnesty to the eleven million estimated people who are not here legally.
• Revisit chain immigration practices and reform a dated visa lottery system.
• End sanctuary cities.
• Prioritize skills-based immigration to support our technology, science, engineering, and health care industries.

Lincoln Chafee: Co-sponsored McCain-Kennedy immigration bill

CHAFEE: I co-sponsored the McCain bill. He came up with a bill, path to legality but also strong border security. There was a good compromise. Bush supports it and others and that's the best way to handle these 11 million illegal immigrants that are here working illegally in this country. First, border security. Second, a path to legality. Pay back fines. Learn English. Get in the back of the line of the immigration line. And it's a big problem. It's going to take bipartisan work.

LAFFEY: Chafee voted for illegal aliens and voted to give social security benefits to illegal aliens and he's voted to give foreign workers up to four to five times as much as American workers on the same job site. I won't stand for that if I'm down in the US Senate. They want the border secured. Then they want to enforce the laws against employers. Then after we do those two things, then we can talk about a guest worker program that would help both Mexico and the US.

Lincoln Chafee: Laffey supported then opposed ID cards for illegal aliens

Mark Zaccaria: No pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants

A: No.

Q: Do you support decreasing the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support establishing English as the official national language?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police?

A: Yes.

Zaccaria adds, "There is already a path to citizenship for those coming to America to become Americans. Each year that path is taken by more new US Citizens than all other nations on earth admit. Our problem is with those coming here only for economic purposes. For them we need to have an easy to use Guest Worker program (9 months in, 3 months out) and robust sanctions against scofflaw employers to shut of under-the-table exploitation opportunities."

Stephen Laffey: Opposes the McCain-Kennedy bill?a vote for illegal aliens

CHAFEE: I co-sponsored the McCain bill. He came up with a bill, path to legality but also strong border security. There was a good compromise. Bush supports it and others and that's the best way to handle these 11 million illegal immigrants that are here working illegally in this country. First, border security. Second, a path to legality. Pay back fines. Learn English. Get in the back of the line of the immigration line. And it's a big problem. It's going to take bipartisan work.

LAFFEY: Chafee voted for illegal aliens and voted to give social security benefits to illegal aliens and he's voted to give foreign workers up to four to five times as much as American workers on the same job site. I won't stand for that if I'm down in the US Senate. They want the border secured. Then they want to enforce the laws against employers. Then after we do those two things, then we can talk about a guest worker program that would help both Mexico and the US.