Kerry: Citizenship For Anyone In US For Five Years

Democrat Primary Debate ^ | Sep 4, 2003 | John Kerry

[Hon]

Question: Would you support legalizing undocumented immigrants in this country?

Kerry: Absolutely. I supported and was prepared to vote for amnesty from 1986. And it is essential to have immigration reform. Anyone who has been in this country for five or six years, who's paid their taxes, who has stayed out of trouble, ought to be able to translate into an American citizenship immediately, not waiting.

Source: Democratic Primary Debate, Albuquerque New Mexico Sep 4, 2003

[bushsupporter30]

Before applying for their citizenship. I think that is the keyword. It takes 1-2 years to get citiznership anyways, and people from certain countries are put lower in the totem pole. Its very simple to start penalizing those who were illegals when they apply for citiznership.
And the process still is, you have to get a green card, and stay in the country for x years before you get citiznership. I am not even sure if Bush's plan includes the greencard process, let alone citizneship. One cannot automatically get citiznershiup without going through the greencard process. And look at what the Rats are proposing. People need to wake up and smell the difference.

[bushsupporter30]

Well, I would tend to agree with ya on why they are being given citizenship but the problem is finding these people out. They are already in the country and we have to get them out. No where in Bush's plan is the word citiznership uttered. Contrast that to the Rats plan where everyone of them utter the word citiznership thinking of the votes that they might get. The congress is still divided and a few Rats in place can turn this around to the other side and we are left with everything hanging....Something better than nothing.

[bushsupporter30]

And the Bush Bashers equate Kerry to Bush in this regard or say "little difference". I think there is a huge difference between what Bush has mentioned and what the Rats are proposing. They cannot get more leftist than this and as usual, the president has pulled the rug right from under the Rats...

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

As predicted by many, the Dems are staking out a policy position far more extreme than that of W. Meanwhile, the Congress has declared Bush's proposal DOA. It seems that Bush has out-strategerized the Dummycrats.

[bushsupporter30]

The 5 year guest program followed by green card processing that takes 1-2 years to get. After green card, you have to have 5 years if i am not mistaken to apply for citiznership, and then 1-2 years to get citizenship. But I dont think that Bush's plan even proposes the greencard program for illegals.

[finnman69]

Now that is amnesty.

[longtermmemmory]

I thought it was socialist who wanted open borders and libertarians wanted open importing.

[Sabertooth]

I am not even sure if Bush's plan includes the greencard process, let alone citizneship.

You can be sure it does:

Some temporary workers will make the decision to pursue American citizenship. Those who make this choice will be allowed to apply in the normal way. They will not be given unfair advantage over people who have followed legal procedures from the start.
Text of Bush immigration speech
President outlines plan to give illegals legal status

Of course, the last sentence is untrue. Legalized-Illegals will given priority over legal guest-worker candidates who didn't violate our laws to take jobs here illegally, and haven't yet been admitted.

[finnman69]

The difference=Citizenship

[bushsupporter30]

Just dont see a lot of Bush Bashers bashing the rats.. do we... I remember the last immigration post about Bush that had couple thousand threads in an hour or so.

[bushsupporter30]

So, if you follow the last post I did, its still 10-12 years to apply for citiznership. You have to get a green card before you can apply for citiznership. So they are still 5 years behind. They are already in the country working. Hard to find 8 million and kick them out.

[KellyAdmirer]

People can say whatever about this, but to me, Bush's plan is WAY WAY better than what Kerry wants. The two aren't even comparable. Kerry wants to effectively open the gates completely, Bush plans to manage the inevitable flow somehow in some rational fashion.

[OrioleFan]

What he said:

Kerry: Absolutely. I supported and was prepared to vote for amnesty from 1986. And it is essential to have immigration reform. Anyone who has been in this country for five or six years, who's paid their taxes, who has stayed out of trouble, ought to be able to translate into an American citizenship immediately, not waiting.

What he meant:

Kerry: Absolutely. I supported and was prepared to vote for amnesty from 1986. And it is essential to have immigration reform. Anyone who has been in this country for five or six years, who's paid their taxes, who has stayed out of trouble, and who votes for DemocRATs ought to be rewarded with an American citizenship immediately, not waiting.

[kevao]

Just dont see a lot of Bush Bashers bashing the rats.. do we...

I think the reason is, one EXPECTS this kind of proposal from a Rat, while Bush's proposal blindsided many of the faithful.

[Sabertooth]

Now that is amnesty.

So the Kerry Amnesty is an Amnesty.

Was the Reagan Amnesty an Amnesty?

Effect on Illegal Aliens	Reagan Amnesty	Bush Amnesty
Legalizes millions, but not all, Illegal Aliens.	Yes	Yes
Charges a fee to Illegal Aliens for legalization.	Yes	Yes
Initially grants temporary, not permanent status to Illegal Aliens.	Yes	Yes
Provides path for subsequent permanent status for legalized Illegals.	Yes	Yes
Provides path to eventual U.S. citizenship for legalized Illegals.	Yes	Yes
Wasn't officially called an Amnesty	Yes	Yes

Take the Reagan Amnesty Pop Quiz!

I need to do some research and add a new column for the Clinton Amnesties. I'm fairly certain all of the answers would be yes for him, as well, except that he only Amnestied a bit over a million Illegals.

[Hon]

For Immediate Release
January 7, 2004

Contact: David Wade
David DiMartino

Kerry Statement On New Immigration Policies

"President Bush promised that America's relationship with Latin America would be a centerpiece of his foreign policy. Until now, he has ignored that promise, breaking faith with Hispanic Americans and Latin America. Bush has also failed to follow through on his promise to work with Vicente Fox, leaving that relationship in tatters.

"Bush's policy rewards business over immigrants by providing them with a permanent pool of disenfranchised temporary workers who could easily be exploited by employers. Bush's proposal fails to address the plight of immigrants coming to work in the United States by not providing a meaningful path to becoming legal permanent residents. And if Bush is really concerned about the plight of immigrants coming to work in the United States he should tell his party to stop the heartless and divisive politics the Republican Party is employing in California to get a new Prop 187 on the ballot for next year's election, and a similar effort in Arizona to victimize immigrants for the failures of government and an unstable economy.

"As president, I will support sensible reform of our immigration system that protects workers and also provides employers with the employees that they need. I will immediately resume our dialogue with President Fox and put in place an earned legalization program that will allow undocumented immigrants to legalize their status if they have been in the United States for a certain amount of time, have been working, and can pass a background check. This makes sense for the economy, provides fairness to people in our communities who have worked hard and paid taxes, and will also allow us to strengthen our homeland security by bringing undocumented workers out of the shadows and into the light of greater accountability."

http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/issues/dems010704immrxn.html

[bushsupporter30]

Employers must not hire undocumented aliens or temporary workers whose legal status has expired. They must report to the government the temporary workers they hire and who leave their employ so that we can keep track of people in the program and better enforce our immigration laws. There must be strong workplace enforcement with tough penalties for anyone -- for any employer violating these laws.

Undocumented workers now here will be required to pay a one-time fee to register for the temporary worker program. Those who seek to join the program from abroad and have complied with our immigration laws will not have to pay any fee.

I opposed amnesty, placing undocumented workers on the automatic path to citizenship. Granting amnesty encourages the violation of our laws and perpetuates illegal immigration.

This is the opposite of what the Rats are presenting and I can gurantee you, they will try to get this going if a Rat becomes president.

[bushsupporter30]

But some of the people basing Bush are willing to vote for Kerry. Thats what gets me.

[Blood of Tyrants]

But once they are more than 5 miles beyond the border, they know that they are pretty much home free. There are THOUSANDS of illegal aliens in and around Nashville and I could find 50 within 10 minutes.

When the Tennessee general assembly gave illegal aliens the ability to get driver's licenses, they were lined up at every DL testing center FOR WEEKS! Yet not ONE arrest was made by the INS despite HUNDREDS of calls complaining about them. One DL testing station was within sight of the INS office. Hell, they had to drive past it on the way to work!

[longtermmemmory]

As the law stands right now. If you are in the USA for ten years you can "turn yourself in" and apply for permanent residency. (this is up from 6 years thanks to one the the immigration reform laws pushed by republicans in the 90's) You have to show a connection and a need to stay in the USA. (paid taxes, appartment lease, electric bills, medical bills) After the application is approved by the service oriented branch of the USCIS, the person recieves a greeen card. Five years after having a green card the illegal can ask for citizen ship.

Thus the law stands now, 15 years to citizenship. (this does not take into account the one year+ the application takes to be reviewed and approved). Kerry's plan is to reduce the whole process to five years.

BTW illegal aliens do vote. Not legal, its afelony but they vote.


BTWW: This is why Judge Colton in Palm Beach has seen a jump in dependency cases in Palm Beach. The immigration lawyers are using the dependency process to create a special condition paper trail. It gets the children qualified for special schools and special schools is what INS (USCIS) want to hear about. If border patrol picks up the illegals before the application is filed, they have difficulties. Immigration lawyers are upset because he is advising border patrol of the situation.