Howard Dean on Immigration Former VT Governor; Former Democratic Candidate for President

Earned legalization for undocumented immigrants

A: We need earned legalization for undocumented immigrants in the US who work hard, pay taxes, and otherwise obey the rules, so that they can become full participants in society, including becoming citizens.

Be careful about granting citizenship for military services

DEAN: You have to be a little bit careful about how you do that, otherwise you will have a disproportionate number of people who are Hispanic joining the army simply to do that. So the answer is, if you serve America, yes, you ought to get citizenship. But we have to be very careful just exactly how we offer that so we don’t have an unfair, disproportionate affect on Hispanics in this country who are not citizens.

KUCINICH: First, that we all agree that people ought to have citizenship if they serve this country. We also ought to agree that there ought to be amnesty for anyone who has been working in this country and would otherwise be denied rights. Third, we ought to talk about how the Bush administration’s program that they just announced is really a program for indentured servitude because what they are talking about is locking people into control by corporations.

Don’t divide immigrants-we all are

Today, immigrants are among the hardest-working people in this country. They’re often working two jobs, paying their taxes, and contributing to the well-being of their community. They came here for a better life and are looking to raise their kids and give them in turn a better life than they had themselves. This aspiration and hard work are part of the strength of our nation and we need to support these hard-working people. We cannot allow politicians to try to divide us and turn us against them on the basis of their being immigrants or on the basis of race.

If immigrants work & pay taxes, give them citizenship

• I will work to ensure that people who work hard, pay taxes, and otherwise obey the rules can become full participants in our society, including becoming citizens.
• I will work to regularize the migration of labor in a way that makes economic & humanitarian sense. Deaths in the desert do neither.
• I will propose reforms that ensure we can meet our economy’s need for workers at all skill levels, without pitting foreign workers against US workers.
• I will work to forge stronger partnerships with countries, especially Mexico, so that in the long run, fewer people will be driven by desperation to break laws.
• I will work to ensure that immigrants who are detained are afforded their basic civil rights and that our concern for national security does not become another excuse for racial profiling.
• I will build on our country’s long history of welcoming immigrants in ways that reflect our need for security but do not sacrifice the basic ideals upon which this nation was founded.

Poor treatment of Muslim immigrants is ethnic profiling

The cheers and ovations grew more frequent when Dean turned to condemning the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism tactics within the US, saying that its treatment of immigrants and roundups of Muslims amounted to “ethnic profiling” and violated constitutional guarantees -- reinforcing claims made by a battery of lawyers, scholars and community service agency workers during the morning panel. “Because John Ashcroft touts the Patriot Act around the country does not mean John Ashcroft is a patriot,” Dean said to rising cheers. “That American flag over there belongs to every American -- not only to John Ashcroft, Rush Limbaugh, and Pat Robertson.”

Concerned about immigrants dying in desert crossings

The Americas are more important than War on Terror

No automated entry-exit control system; allow free flow.

• WHEREAS, Resolutions 23-8 and 24-1 were adopted by the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers in 1998 and 1999 respectively, calling for the full repeal of Section 110 of the U.S. Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996; and
• WHEREAS, the implementation of Section 110, which was set to take effect March 30, 2001, would have required the installation of an automated entry-exit control system at U.S. ports of entry which would have disrupted the flow of goods, services, and people that occurs every day between New England and Eastern Canada; and
• WHEREAS, the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers pledged to work vigorously and cooperatively to encourage their respective federal legislatures and governments to remove any requirement to implement entry-exit control beyond airports; and
• WHEREAS, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have overwhelmingly adopted legislation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service Data Management Act of 2000, amending Section 110, requiring the Attorney General of the United States to implement an integrated entry and exit data system using information already collected at U.S. ports of entry, and not requiring the collection of new types of documents or data from aliens;
• NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers commend the U.S. Congress for passing, and President Clinton for signing this legislation into law, thus ensuring that the United States and Canada can continue to maintain the close economic and trade links we currently enjoy.

Share costs of legal immigration between states & federal.

The Governors urge Congress to consider the following principles regarding immigration policies.
• The decision to admit immigrants is a federal one that carries with it a firm federal commitment to shape immigration policy within the parameters of available resources we as a nation are determined to provide.
• The fiscal impact of immigration decisions must be addressed by the federal government. The states, charged with implementing federal policy, have shared and are sharing in the costs; however, there should be no further shift of costs to the states.
• A basic responsibility of the federal government is to collect and disseminate timely and reliable statistical information on immigration and its consequences for the United States.
• Federal immigration policies should ensure that new immigrants do not become a public charge to federal, state, or local governments.
• The federal government must provide adequate information to and consult with states on issues concerning immigration decisions that affect the states.
• States should not have to incur significant costs in implementing federal laws regarding immigration status as a condition of benefits.

The Governors urge the following regarding Legalization and Naturalization:
• States require maximum flexibility in determining and allocating resources to meet the needs of newly legalized aliens.
• The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) must be diligent in its efforts to ensure that felons are not naturalized and being given the benefits of citizenship rather than being deported.
• The naturalization process should be streamlined to be more efficient and accessible to eligible applicants wishing to become citizens, with all the rights and responsibilities thereof.
• The INS must take aggressive action to eliminate the backlog of naturalization applications, which is now approximately 800,000 nationwide.

Federal government should deal with criminal repatriation.

[Regarding illegal immigration], the Governors continue to call on the federal government to negotiate and renegotiate prisoner transfer treaties to expedite the transfer of criminal aliens in the United States who are subject to deportation or removal. The negotiations for such agreements should focus on:
• ensuring that the transferred prisoners serve the balance of their state-imposed prison sentence;
• removing any requirement that the prisoners consent to be transferred to their countries of origin;
• structuring the process to require that the prisoners serve the remainder of their original prison sentence if they return to the United States; and
• considering economic incentives to encourage countries of origin to take back their criminal citizens.

Additionally, the Governors believe the federal government should:
• increase the use of interior repatriation with countries contiguous to the United States;
• place INS officials in state and local facilities for early identification of potentially deportable aliens - nearer the point of their illegal entry - to ensure formal deportation prior to release; and
• upon the request of a state Governor, place INS officers in state courts to assist in the identification of criminal aliens pending criminal prosecution.