2004 Republican Party Platform - Illegal Immigration

2004 Republican National Convention Website ^ | August 26, 2004 | Platform Committee (Melissa Hart & Eric Tanenblatt, Subcommittee Chairs)

[k2blader]

Re-typed verbatim from the 2004 Republican Party Platform (pages 80 and 81):

Supporting Humane and Legal Immigration

The Republican Party supports reforming the immigration system to ensure that it is legal, safe, orderly and humane. It also supports measures to ensure that the immigration system is structured to address the needs of national security. America is a stronger and better nation because of the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants, and the Republican Party honors them. A growing economy requires a growing number of workers, and President Bush has proposed a new temporary worker program that applies when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs. This new program would allow workers who currently hold jobs to come out of the shadows and to participate legally in America’s economy. It would allow men and women who enter the program to apply for citizenship in the same manner as those who apply from outside the United States. There must be strong workplace enforcement with tough penalties against employees and employers who violate immigration laws. We oppose amnesty because it would have the effect of encouraging illegal immigration and would give an unfair advantage to those who have broken our laws.

To better ensure that immigrants enter the United States only through legal means that allow for verification of their identity, reconnaissance cameras, border patrol agents, and unmanned aerial flights have all been increased at the border. In addition, Border Patrol agents now have sweeping new powers to deport illegal aliens without having first to go through the cumbersome process of allowing the illegal alien to have a hearing before an immigration judge. We support these efforts to enforce the law while welcoming immigrants who enter America through legal avenues.

[k2blader]

Conservatives deserve to read for themselves the official Republican stance on illegal immigration.

Even while supporting President Bush’s proposal to reward illegal aliens with “temporary” amnesty and "equal opportunity" to apply for citizenship, the committee has the audacity to say it opposes amnesty because that would encourage illegal immigration and be unfair to those applying legally.

The GOP has lost all credibility on at least this one issue.

[risk]

They're still a big improvement over our internationalist friends at the DNC. The reforms must continue or else a disaster is going to take place of massive proportions.

[NewRomeTacitus]

compare the above plank with this one:

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We affirm the integrity of the international borders of the United States and the Constitutional authority and duty of the federal government to guard and to protect those borders, including the regulation of the numbers and of the qualifications of immigrants into the country.

Each year approximately one million legal immigrants and almost as many illegal aliens enter the United States. These immigrants - including illegal aliens - have been made eligible for various kinds of public assistance, including housing, education, Social Security, and legal services. This unconstitutional drain on the federal Treasury is having a severe and adverse impact on our economy, increasing the cost of government at federal, state, and local levels, adding to the tax burden, and stressing the fabric of society. The mass importation of people with low standards of living threatens the wage structure of the American worker and the labor balance in our country.

We oppose the abuse of the H-1B and L-1 visa provisions of the immigration act which are displacing American workers with foreign.

We favor a moratorium on immigration to the United States, except in extreme hardship cases or in other individual special circumstances, until the availability of all federal subsidies and assistance be discontinued, and proper security procedures have been instituted to protect against terrorist infiltration.

We also insist that every individual group and/or private agency which requests the admission of an immigrant to the U.S., on whatever basis, be required to commit legally to provide housing and sustenance for such immigrants, bear full responsibility for the economic independence of the immigrants, and post appropriate bonds to seal such covenants.

We demand that the federal government restore immigration policies based on the practice that potential immigrants will be disqualified from admission to the U.S. if, on the grounds of health, criminality, morals, or financial dependence, they would impose an improper burden on the United States, any state, or any citizen of the United States.

We oppose the provision of welfare subsidies and other taxpayer-supported benefits to illegal aliens, and reject the practice of bestowing U.S. citizenship on children born to illegal alien parents while in this country.

We oppose any extension of amnesty to illegal aliens. We call for the use of U.S. troops to protect the states against invasion.

We oppose bilingual ballots. We insist that those who wish to take part in the electoral process and governance of this nation be required to read and comprehend basic English as a precondition of citizenship. We support English as the official language for all governmental business by the United States.

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from the Constitution Party platform

[k2blader]

Hope you folks don't mind the ping, but I think you may be interested.

Unfortunately, I don't have the full ping list, but if any of you would be so kind...

[k2blader]

Oop, you beat me!

And thank you for the information.

[k2blader]

I'm fine with the 2nd paragraph of the plank.

But it is intellectually dishonest to pretend the proposal is not an amnesty and will have no effect on how our border patrol agents are able to do their jobs.

[risk]

I agree, but it's a case where the party knows its candidate has strong differences, but still wants to accommodate his programs.

[k2blader]

It's understandable that the Republicans want to reelect President Bush, but I hope this particular proposal of his is buried in Congress.

[ThePythonicCow]

There is a popular bumper sticker that reads:

When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns

There is a parallel to this, that I haven't seen anyone else notice:

When low wages are outlawed, only outlaws will have low wages

The essence of the Minimum Wage is that it outlaws lower wages. The outlaws who work for less are better known as illegal Mexican immigrants. As we raise the Minimum Wage, our need for illegal immigrants grows. It's not that there are jobs we Americans are too lazy to do. It's that there are jobs which don't justify the Minimum Wage, so legal citizens are not elligible for them. Only illegals are elligible.

Thus does the Minimum Wage contribute to flooding our society with immigrants in greater number than we can assimilate, who are discouraged from assimilation by their illegal status. That such a flood of illegal immigrants is forthcoming is a testament to the free, capitalist health of our nation.

To reduce illegal immigration, don't try to fight the natural, profit seeking response of a free capitalist economy with central immigration planning and enforcement. Instead just lower the Minimum Wage !!

It will have to be reduced substantially. The true cost of an illegal immigrant's labor is doubly reduced, first by not having to pay Minimum Wage, second by not have to pay benefits and withholding.

P.S. - Obviously, we must reduce Payroll Taxes as well, to further reduce the advantage that illegals have now for lower paying jobs. If we replaced the Income Tax and its withholding with a National Sales Tax, then this would more fairly apply to all, legal and illegal. If we replaced Social Security with a combination of encouragements for private accounts (accepting that the lower paid jobs would not afford this) and paying the remainder of the existing commitments for benefits from the General Fund, then this would remove another unfair burden only on legals.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

A disaster of masssive proportions HAS taken place. The incumbent President has stood by and watched it continue for almost four years. Open borders=undermining of national security and sovereignty.

[risk]

To reduce illegal immigration, don't try to fight the natural, profit seeking response of a free capitalist economy with central immigration planning and enforcement. Instead just lower the Minimum Wage !!

I see your point but you're ignoring the fact that policy has provided the tolerance of illegal immigration for the express purpose of appeasing the corporate demand for cheap labor. No matter where you set the minimum wage, if you supply employers with illegal immigrants who work off the books, it doesn't matter. The policy of ignoring illegal immigration, demonstrated by our refusal to deport illegals when they are caught in traffic violations, for example, is proof that we have corporate welfare in this country in the form of a cheap and illegal labor supply. As long as these people will work for next to nothing, we are encouraging their abuse.

If you really mean what you're saying, then you'll go after government meddling in the issue from all sides: public policy, corporate responsibility, and relaxing wage controls (if you insist).

Deprive employers of a free influx of millions of cheap laborers and the minimum wage will mysteriously rise on its own. You're going to pay more for your nanny and your lettuce, but our national security and our culture will be protected. It might be someone from your own family who gets a decent job, though.

[risk]

It's undermining our culture, as well. No other immigrants are so bold about declaring their culture as superior or worth maintaining ahead of Anglo Saxon American culture as are the Latinos. They think of themselves as a nation within a nation wherever they go. Most of our illegal immigrants are Latino. We've just got too much of them coming in to be assimilated. Pretty soon they're going to start trying to assimilate us!

[unspun]

It looks good to me. Temporary workers should have the same chances as others of becoming citizens. I like the plank.

[Indie]

EMPTY WORDS MEAN NOTHING.

The number of Christian Conservatives I know that will be voting R for the last time in 2004 would scare you. The R Party may, or may not, wake up in the next 2-4 years.

[risk]

Empty words? When President Bush takes action, he doesn't always talk about it. Turn on your local college radio station. Visit democracynow.org. Do a google search for immigration terms. What you'll find is a loud, RAGING outcry against the changes that have been made in the last three years to de facto immigration policy.

The slammies and commies are having a much harder time snaking their way through our State Department's maze of paperwork to come into this country, and the internationalists on our college campuses are ANGRY.

There's more to this picture than meets the eye.

[risk]

My perspective is that Poland should fight in the war on terror for western civilization and the security of Poland itself. If that includes hopes for American bases and relaxed immigration policies by way of reciprocation, I hope that occurs. I hope that Poles try not to take our slow responses to their pleas personally. Why? We are having problems with all areas of immigration. It just doesn't make sense. Every change we try to make upsets a special interest from large employers to the massive Latino voting bloc, which I find to be unassimilated. You see, I want people to come here who love America and want to be citizens of this country. Some want to come here and make their own new countries. I imagine Poles who'd like to come here want to be Americans who continue to love Poland. Well all Americans should love Poland, too!

[WhiteGuy]

Unacceptable