Barrack Obama vs Mitt Romney, Essay Example

Barrack Obama Vs Mitt Romney on the immigration reform issue

Introduction

There are many people residing in the US since the early 20th century. There are 38 million foreign-born residents and of this one-third are estimated to be those from the illegal or unauthorized residents. Policy experts, as well as observers, maintain that there are flaws in the legal immigration system. This is why there are so numerous unlawful immigrants in the country. They also see this as a failure in the immigration control practices and policies. The presidential candidates have come out to give their views on the critical issue. This is all in the quest of winning the hearts of the voters.

Comparison

President Obama has confirmed his support for comprehensive immigration reform legislation. The reforms include increased enforcement and a pathway to legal residence for all the immigrants. This includes all the unauthorized residents. The debate here involves legal immigration, immigration control, humanitarian migrants, legalization, refugees and alien rights, responsibilities and benefits (Wasem 2). What Obama advocates are a comprehensive immigration reform that includes the following.

• Creation of secure borders, which means protection of the integrity of their borders. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology at the ports of entry and borders.
• Improvement in the immigration system, which includes fixing the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy. It also includes increasing the number of legal immigrants in a quest to keep families together and meet the demand for employment. This is because employers cannot do this on their own (Wasem 13).
• Removal of incentives to enter illegally through a crack down on employers who employ people without any documentation.
• Bringing a person out of the shadows, this means supporting a system that will give undocumented immigrants some benefits. This includes; allowing them to learn English, going back of the line for a chance to become citizens (Wasem 14).
• Working with Mexico meaning that they will develop an economic development in Mexico for the purpose of decreasing illegal immigration.

The Obama administration has indicated that the reforms will top their priorities along with other priorities as foreign and domestic policy. He has pledged to continue the work he had started on fixing the broken immigration system (Wasem 14).

Mitt Romney on the hand supports the reforms to some extent. He says that he will implement a national immigration strategy that aims to address the broken system. His mission is to work, with the Congress and across the aisle, to forge a lasting solution. He says that he appreciates and understands the role played by foreign workers. This is especially in the vegetable and fruit industry (United Fresh 1). The current system for issuing visas to the temporary employees is broken and needs to be fixed. He says that if he is chosen, he will make a system that will bring in temporary agricultural workers and seasonal workers functional for the workers and employers. Unnecessary requirements that, often delay the issuing of visas will be rid of and hence, speed the application process. He says that a legal immigration system that works will be beneficial. The reason being that it will work to provide a lawful alternative to those who wish to enter illegally. It also works for employers who face the choice of either reducing operations or turning to illegal labor.

Contrast

The Latinos are acknowledged as being important in the presidential election. It is for this reason that president Obama and Republican Mitt are both attempting to gain votes through the immigration reform. The immigration policies put in place by Obama resulted in a number of deportations. He also put in place a policy that granted immigrants immunity. This applied to undocumented immigrants who arrived as children (Democratic National Convention 47). The republicans, on the other hand, decided to play politics on the issue instead of doing the right thing. Romney has distanced himself from his earlier embrace of the party’s hard line stance against the illegal immigrants. Romney says that he will not play immigrant politics with children but will pursue something permanent. He says that he will start by making sure that those serving in the military will have a chance to become legal residents. This is because the military people have fought so hard to defend the very country.

Both candidates agree that reforms are needed in the immigration system. This includes a plan meant to address the millions of undocumented immigrants present in the country. While both candidates are in support for the improvement of the reforms, they remain divided. They are divided on the issue of whether to expel the undocumented immigrants or offer them a path to citizenship and government services. Obama supports a path to corroboration for the undocumented immigrants. This includes; paying fines, learning English, toughening penalties meant for hiring illegal immigrants and voting for fence along their border with Mexico. Mitt, on the other hand, says that he would make English the official language. He also says that he will turn off the magnets such as tuition breaks that draw people into the country in an illegal manner.

Obama prioritizes the reforms as well as the country’s economic and security needs while Romney has opposed the commonsense reforms moving further from the issue (Democratic National Convention 47). Obama unveiled a plan that allowed the illegal youth to apply for work permits. This is something that was counteracted by Romney who said that his long-term solutions would replace the new policies of Obama.

Conclusion

From this, we can conclude that both candidates are trying their best to gunner votes from the people. The immigration reforms are very critical and sensitive hence both candidates need to be careful when dealing with the issue.

Works cited

Democratic National Convention. Greater Together. 2012. Web. 19 September 2012.<http://www.nnirr.org/~nnirrorg/drupal/sites/default/files/democratic_party_platform_on_immigration_2012.pdf>

Wasem, Ruth. Immigration Reform Issues in the 111th Congress. 2010. Web. 19^th September 2012.<http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/R40501.pdf>

United Fresh. Washington Public Policy Conference. 2012. Web. 19 September 2012.<http://www.unitedfresh.org/assets/wppc/RomneyResponse.pdf>