Issue Position: Immigration

Issue Position

Since our nation's birth, Americans have taken pride in the United States as a land of opportunity -- a place where any individual willing to work hard has the opportunity to succeed and achieve the American Dream. Throughout the years, our country has enjoyed the benefits of a lawful and organized immigration system.

However, our current immigration system is undeniably broken and in need of reform because it actually encourages illegal immigration. As of 2013, there are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States. This state of affairs gives illegal immigrants de facto amnesty. Moreover, despite years of discussion, the federal government still has failed to adequately secure our borders. This is not only an immigration issue; it is a threat to our national security as well.

Congress should focus on:

Strengthening the enforcement of our current laws and enhancing border security.
Streamlining our overly complex and bureaucratic temporary guest worker programs.
Providing a clear distinction between legal and illegal immigration that discourages people from entering our country illegally and is fair to those who have done it the right way.

Any effort to fix our deficient system must first start by sealing our borders and ensuring that our border security system employs 21st century technology, among other resources, to permanently stop the flow of illegal border crossings. Without this necessary reform, any new immigration legislation would be ineffective since we would soon find ourselves back in the same position with millions of undocumented immigrants flowing into our country.

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