election 2008: immigration

obama calls the issue "immigration" on his website, mccain calls it "border security and immigration". that's about where the candidates differ the most, because as far as i can see it, their plans for reform aren't that dissimilar.

both candidates support reinforcing border security with manpower, financial aid, and technology. obama says nothing more than just that; mccain suggests he'll spend money on unmanned patrols of the border and subsidies to US attorneys in border states. both candidates support an employment eligibility system for businesses to verify the immigration status of employees. obama just says he'll "crack down" on employers who hire illegals, mccain supports their aggressive prosecution.

with regards to the immigration system, both support streamlining the process, with mccain giving some detail and breaking down immigrant workers into several groups- highly skilled, low-skilled non-agricultural, and low-skilled agricultural. his suggestion for the last group, however, is the quite vague promise of providing "a non-bureaucratic, adaptable, useable program that is reflective of market needs and protects both the immigrant and US workers". translation- "we'll conveniently ignore this group, since we know our food supply system would collapse if we cut off the supply of illegal workers in agriculture". at least mccain gives it a shot though- obama doesn't address the topic at all.

neither candidate supports a mass deportation of illegals. rather, they both would ask that all illegals be accounted for, be asked to learn english, pay a fine, and be offered a chance at citizenship after all others who are currently in the system. mccain gives a little more language about weeding out those with criminal records or who have used ill-gotten social security numbers.

obama gives additional points about working with mexico to promote their economic development as a way of decreasing illegal immigration and to expedite the citizenship process for immigrants who serve in the military.

in summary, i'm struggling to find much difference between the candidates on this point. i'll have to call it a push for now, and see how it plays out during the debates.