Amy Taylor

What Are the Candidates Saying About Immigration Reform? Tom Vilsack

This ongoing series will profile likely Presidential candidates and their views on immigration reform.

Outgoing Governor of Iowa and Democratic candidate for President Tom Vilsack publicly criticized the recent workplace raids which rounded up over a thousand undocumented immigrant workers in the Midwest. The Governor also harshly criticized the handling of the raids by ICE, the many children left parentless when the came home from school, and the fact that many individuals were wrongly detained. In response, Vilsack even sent a letter to President Bush to demand assistance to families in locating their loved ones after the raids. He noted that, "This whole process suggests a crying need for immigration reform. It is clear this has been discussed and debated but not acted on by the Congress that just adjourned."

Finally someone newsworthy is making this connection!

Vislack has spoken out in support of progressive immigration reform before. "A straightforward path to lawful citizenship, reinforced with secure borders, is long overdue."

Although Vilsack is one of the only likely candidates focusing on the need for comprehensive reform in the news lately, his past positions have shown some ambivalence on the issue. For the most part, we like what he has to say. Recognizing the crucial role that immigrants play in our economy, Vislack has been a long-time supporter of increasing immigration to the state of Iowa in order to help fill jobs there. In 1998, Vilsack's own initiative to address a dwindling labor force in Iowa included methods to attract immigrants to the state, creating welcome centers and blocking federal quotas. But in 2002, when he thought his re-election campaign might suffer as a result of these policies, he abruptly dropped the issue. He subsequently supported an initiative which made English the official language of Iowa, a move that many say may lose him some support in 2008. He now admits that supporting the English Only initiative was bad policy and when asked about it, he highlights the amendments to the bill that were added later to fund English language classes and other programs for new arrivals.

Vilsack now publicly supports an earned path to citizenship while noting the importance of securing the border at the same time. He is smart on the issue -- recognizing that it would be impractical policy to deport the 12 million undocumented immigrants already living here, advocating for a path to legalization for undocumented workers and attacking the backlog and inefficiency of the current, broken system.

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Posted at 8:00 AM, Jan 03, 2007 in Immigration | The Candidates on Immigration
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