Assessing Overall Candidate Promises

EDITOR'S NOTE: All of a candidates' actions and promises on immigration are considered in these three overarching categories --

• what do you do with the 12-20 million illegal aliens already here;
• what do you do to stop future illegal immigration, and
• what do you do to protect American workers and communities from the current peak flood of foreign workers?

Amnesty & Attrition Through Enforcement

PB: The U.S. population now—primarily due to immigrants and their children coming in—is estimated to grow to over 400 million by mid-century. Would that have an adverse impact on the environment?

RN: We don’t have the absorptive capacity for that many people. Over 32 million came in, in the ’90s, which is the highest in American history.

PB: What would you do about it?

RN: We have to control our immigration. We have to limit the number of people who come into this country illegally.

PB: What level of legal immigration do you think we should have per year?

RN: (No clear answer given) June 21, 2004; The American Conservative interview with Pat Buchanan

Assessing Specific Stances on LEGAL IMMIGRATION

EDITOR'S NOTE: Unless the following four categories of legal immigration are changed, current policies will add 100 million additional people to the United States over the next few decades.

CHAIN MIGRATION

VISA LOTTERY

IMPORTING FOREIGN WORKERS

"I don’t think the United States should be in the business of brain-draining skilled talent, especially in the Third World, because we are importing in the best engineers, scientists, software people, doctors, entrepreneurs who should be in their countries, building their own countries. We are driving the talent to these shores ... I don’t believe in giving visas to software people from the Third World when we have got all kinds of unemployed software people here." June 21, 2004; The American Conservative interview with Pat Buchanan

"'I don't think Silicon Valley should be allowed to bring in 250-300,000 computer specialists, scientists and engineers, who are desperately needed in third-world countries,' Nader said, charging that Internet companies just 'underpay them compared to Americans who are ready to be retrained in the new computer languages.'

Asked if he considers India to be an 'oppressive regime supported by America,' and whether there should be a specific limit to H1-Bs, Nader said:

'Well, a lot of workers in this country can be trained in new computer languages. There are minority groups in this country that formed associations to highlight that. There is no shortage that can be documented that Silicon Valley is trumpeting. It's just that they want foreign, skilled computer programmers and engineers and scientists that they can push around and pay less to.

'We are hogs when it comes to brain-draining,' he continued. 'There's no country in the history of the world that has consciously drained more talent of other countries who desperately need this talent for public health, for entrepreneurship, for scientific and engineering development. And had any other country pursued that against us, we'd be extraordinarily angry at them. Put the shoe on the other foot for a change.'"October 24, 2000; AlterNet

"Most people don’t want to leave their native land. But there’s another immigration issue, which is the brain drain. Silicon Valley, trying to get more computer specialists, and others trying to get physicians from other countries in the Third World that desperately need them. We’ve got to stop being a hog for the skilled people abroad. There’s an African-American group that just started protesting Silicon Valley’s H-1B visa, pressure on Congress, saying there are African-Americans who are trained or could be trained to meet these jobs in the computer industry." Nader-Buchanan debate on NBC's Meet the Press; October 1, 2000 via OntheIssues.org

Citizenship for Births to illegal Aliens

Assessing Specific Stances on ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

EDITORS NOTE: Here are 8 very important steps needed to halt illegal immigration. Aspects not included in this section are included in the section above about Overall Policies on Future Illegal Immigration.

MANDATORY WORKPLACE VERIFICATION

PUNISHING EMPLOYERS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS  

ENTRY/EXIT SYSTEM AT BORDERS

BORDER SECURITY

'We cannot have open borders, that's obviously a totally absurd proposition,' he said. 'It would depress wages here enormously. Tens of millions of people at all levels, including scientists and workers, would be poring into this country. So we have to have some sort of limit.'

And even though the border would be decriminalized, Nader says it needs to be strengthened.

'We obviously have to pour more resources into the border with Mexico,' he said. 'There's too much corruption, too much smuggling, too much infectious diseases and too much pollution since NAFTA went into effect. And Clinton (and) Gore promised [that] after NAFTA was passed, that they were going to pour in a lot of resources to clean up that border, public health, transportation ... and they haven't done that. It's one of their major broken promises.'" October 24, 2000; AlterNet

SANCTUARY CITIES POLICIES

DRIVER'S LICENSES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

PB: Should they be entitled to get driver’s licenses?

RN: Yes, in order to reduce hazards on the highway. If you have people who are driving illegally, there are going to be more crashes, and more people are going to be killed. June 21, 2004; The American Conservative interview with Pat Buchanan

STATE AID TO ILLEGAL STUDENTS

PB: Should illegal aliens be entitled to social-welfare benefits, even though they are not citizens and broke into the country?

RN: I think they should be given all the fair-labor standards and all the rights and benefits of American workers, and if this country doesn’t like that, maybe they will do something about the immigration laws. June 21, 2004; The American Conservative interview with Pat Buchanan

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, author, and has been named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential Americans in the Twentieth Century.

For over four decades Ralph Nader has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups to advocate for solutions.

In his career as consumer advocate he founded many organizations including the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), the Center for Auto Safety, Public Citizen, Clean Water Action Project, the Disability Rights Center, the Pension Rights Center, the Project for Corporate Responsibility and The Multinational Monitor (a unique monthly magazine that keeps tabs on corporate behavior internationally).

After working for 40 years on behalf of the health, safety and economic well being of the American people, Nader took stock of the situation: “I don't like citizen groups being shut out by both parties in this city -- corporate occupied territory -- not having a chance to improve their country.”

Never one to be stymied, Nader responded to the declining influence of civil society over elected representatives by entering the electoral arena himself, and is now on his third major presidential campaign aimed at reinvigorating America’s democracy, in the best traditions of the suffragettes, labor party, and abolitionists of the 19th and early 20th century.

In the past decade, Nader has dedicated himself to putting people back in charge of America’s democracy, launching three major presidential campaigns.