2008 Party Platforms on Immigration
| Article Index |
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| 2008 Party Platforms on Immigration |
| Immigration Myths |
| Democratic Platform on Immigration |
| Republican Platform on Immigration and Security |
| All Pages |
The Democratic and Republican parties just finished their conventions. With vice presidential announcements and hurricanes, the party platforms were widely ignored. These platforms are part of what the candidates from each party will try to uphold when they reach office. They can often have widespread impacts on Latinos in the United States and abroad.
In 1996, the winning GOP platform included a massive crackdown and assault on immigrants in the United States. As a result of that platform, laws were enacted that included provisions for retroactively looking at old crimes committed by immigrants in order to deport them. Legal immigrants who broke sometimes minor laws in their youth, found themselves fully reformed, employed and deported because of something they had paid their debt for many years ago. Many benefits of legal immigrants were also stripped. Many of the laws enacted from that platform and agenda were repealed as unconstitutional or recognized as inhumane, such as those that led to immigrant families being treated differently than American families when discussing compensation for victims of 9-11.
Below are excerpts from both the Democratic and Republican party platforms. The Republican Party platform is once again very alarming. While the Democratic Party includes their immigration policy in a section called "Renewing the American Community," the Republican Party groups immigration with crime and terrorism in a section called, "Immigration, National Security, and the Rule of Law."
This pretty much summarizes the known differences between the parties. The Democratic Party looks for a comprehensive change to immigration policy, one that regulates the border and immigrant rights at the same time, while the Republican platform treats it as a threat.