It was a non-issue during the 2000 election. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/campaign2000issues.html#foreign
Orange County Register. Aug 15, 2000
BORDER ENFORCEMENTSun Sentinel. Sep 10, 2000
Bush: Supports programs such as Operation Hold the Line, which place more Border Patrol officers and resources at border-crossing points. Believes "it is far more compassionate to turn away people at the border than to attempt to find and arrest them once they are living in our country illegally."
LEGALIZING UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
Bush: Opposes blanket amnesty because he believes it will not address immigration problems. Is interested in reestablishing a guest- worker program. Has said he will change INS policy so spouses and minor children of permanent residents can apply for visitor visas while their immigration applications are being processed.
WORKER VISAS
Bush: Supports lifting the current limit of H1-B visas, but believes the long-term solution to the shortage of high-tech workers is education. Supports expanding the H-2A temporary agriculture program to allow more workers.
SERVICES TO IMMIGRANTS
Bush: Opposed the "spirit" of Proposition 187 because he believes "every child ought to be educated regardless of the status of their parents." Has said he believes federal government should reimburse states for costs incurred by illegal immigration.
Here is where the presidential candidates stand on immigration and hemisphere issues:Immigration: enforcement vs. service
Both candidates want to strengthen the nation's borders to keep illegal and criminal immigrants from entering the country. Both also want to improve services for legal immigrants. They differ on how to accomplish these goals.
Bush sees an inherent conflict in having the same agency enforce laws against illegal immigration, and also provide services to immigrants. He advocates congressional action that would split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two separate agencies, one dealing with law enforcement, and the other with services for legal immigrants.
Bush wants to attack illegal immigration "on the front end." He proposes allocating more government resources to reinforce the U.S.- Mexico border, "so states such as Texas and California would not have the huge expenses they currently do."
He also wants to make the INS more friendly and service-oriented to legal immigrants.
Bush proposes to increase INS funding by $500 million over five years to hire more employees and improve the quality of services.
Among other things, he wants to reduce the backlog of citizenship and family-reunification applications. In some parts of the country, the waiting time to become a citizen is two years or more. He proposes a six-month standard for processing immigration applications.
Additionally, he believes the husbands, wives and children of permanent residents should be granted visitor visas while the INS is handling their residency applications. Under the current system, families can be separated for 10 years while these applications are processed.
Skilled foreign workers
The booming economy has created an enormous demand for workers, which isn't being met by U.S. citizens. This has resulted in pressure on both major political parties to allow more foreign workers into the country. Both candidates support increasing temporary visas for professional foreign workers, which high-tech companies say they need desperately. Congress is considering legislation that would raise the cap on so-called "H-1B" visas for foreign engineers, computer programmers and others.
Amnesty for undocumented workers
Gore supports a Clinton administration proposal to grant amnesty to about 1 million out of 5 million to 6 million undocumented workers. This is called the "H-1B-plus" proposal because it is tied to efforts to increase U.S. visas for skilled foreign workers. The amnesty would help meet the need for low-skilled workers for the nation's farm and service industries. Gore supports allowing long-term migrants who have lived in the United States since 1986 to become legal U.S. residents and "retain their substantial ties to this country." He favors doing this by amending the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act of 1997 to include Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Haitians and others. The act currently makes it easier for Nicaraguans and Cubans to remain in the United States.
Bush has not taken a position on this partial amnesty proposal. However, he is against blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants. He supports programs instead that would allow more temporary or guest workers to enter the United States to fill labor shortages in the farming and service industries.