America is an immigrant nation. As President, I will recognize and respect the vital role immigrants have played in building the American Community.
Candidate Bush promised that he would be a different kind of Republican, supportive of immigrants and their desires to achieve the American Dream. Candidate Bush promised to revamp the naturalization process so that immigrants who met the requirements could obtain their citizenship in six months or less. Unfortunately, President Bush has not kept these promises.
While he made these promises, his Attorney General John Ashcroft was deputizing local police authorities as junior INS agents to track down undocumented immigrants. He has ignored the dreams of millions of immigrants to become a legitimate part of our society, and not simply its unseen workforce.
As President, 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 and 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 U.S. workers and while respecting workers' rights -- including the right to organize.
I will work to ensure that immigrants who are detained by the Department of Homeland Security are afforded their basic civil rights. 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.