Senator
Barack Obama
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration/
(Please follow the link
to read the full plan, highlights are below.)

Create Secure Borders

Obama and Biden want to preserve the integrity of
our borders. He supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on
the border and at our ports of entry.

Improve
Our Immigration System

Obama and Biden believe we must fix the
dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants
to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot
fill.

Remove
Incentives to Enter Illegally

Obama and Biden will remove incentives to enter the
country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.

Bring People Out of the Shadows

Obama and Biden support a system that allows
undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English,
and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.

Work with Mexico

Obama and Biden believe we need to do more to
promote economic development in Mexico
to decrease illegal immigration.

Senator John McCain

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/68db8157-d301-4e22-baf7-a70dd8416efa.htm

(Please
follow the link to read the full plan, highlights are below.)

Securing Our Borders First. John McCain's top immigration priority is to
finish securing our borders in an expedited manner. Governors of border states will be
required to certify that the border is secure.

Prosecute
“Bad-Actor” Employers. 
John McCain will implement a secure, accurate, and reliable electronic
employment verification system to ensure that individuals are screened for work
eligibility in a real-time fashion.  John McCain will use this new system
in conjunction with other Department of Homeland Security resources to identify
and aggressively prosecute employers that continue to hire illegal immigrants.

Meet America’s Labor Needs.  John McCain will implement temporary worker
programs that will reflect the labor needs of the United States in both the high-tech
and low skilled sectors while protecting the employment opportunities for US
workers.

Address the Undocumented. 
John McCain will address the fact that we have a large number undocumented
individuals living in the United
States and working in our economy including,
all undocumented individuals will be required to enroll in a program to resolve
their status. This program will use background checks to identify criminal
aliens for prosecution and deportation. Assure that the remaining undocumented
immigrants learn English, pay back taxes and fines, and pass a citizenship
course as part of a path to legal status. 
Guarantee that no person here illegally receives a green card before
those that have been legally waiting outside the country.  

Eliminate the Family Backlog.  John McCain will commit to clearing out the
backlog of individuals that are waiting legally outside of the country, some
for up to 20 years, for their green card number to become available. 

Democratic Party Platform

America has always been a nation of immigrants. Over the years, millions of people have come here in the hope that in America,
you can make it if you try. Each successive wave of immigrants has contributed
to our country’s rich culture, economy and spirit. Like the immigrants that
came before them, today’s immigrants will shape their own destinies and enrich our
country.

Nonetheless,
our current immigration system has been broken for far too long. We need comprehensive
immigration reform, not just piecemeal efforts. We must work together to pass immigration
reform in a way that unites this country, not in a way that divides us by
playing on our worst instincts and fears. We are committed to pursuing tough,
practical, and humane immigration reform in the first year of the next
administration.

We
cannot continue to allow people to enter the United States undetected,
undocumented, and unchecked. The American people are a welcoming and generous
people, but those who enter our country’s borders illegally, and those who
employ them, disrespect the rule of the law. We need to secure our borders, and
support additional personnel, infrastructure, and technology on the border and
at our ports of entry. We need additional Customs and Border Protection agents equipped
with better technology and real-time intelligence. We need to dismantle human smuggling
organizations, combating the crime associated with this trade. We also need to
do more to promote economic development in migrant-sending nations, to reduce
incentives to come to the United
States illegally. And we need to crack down
on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. It’s a problem when we only
enforce our laws against the immigrants themselves, with raids that are
ineffective, tear apart families, and leave people detained without adequate
access to counsel. We realize that employers need a method to verify whether
their employees are legally eligible to work in the United States, and we will ensure
that our system is accurate, fair to legal workers, safeguards people’s
privacy, and cannot be used to discriminate against workers.

We
must also improve the legal immigration system, and make our nation’s
naturalization process fair and accessible to the thousands of legal permanent
residents who are eager to become full Americans. We should fix the
dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy that hampers family reunification, the
cornerstone of our immigration policy for years. Given the importance of both
keeping families together and supporting American businesses, we will increase
the number of immigration visas for family members of people living here and
for immigrants who meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill, as long
as appropriate labor market protections and standards are in place. We will
fight discrimination against Americans who have always played by our
immigration rules but are sometimes treated as if they had not.

For
the millions living here illegally but otherwise playing by the rules, we must
require them to come out of the shadows and get right with the law. We support
a system that requires undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay
a fine, pay taxes, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the
opportunity to become citizens. They are our neighbors, and we can help them
become full tax-paying, law-abiding, productive members of society.

Republican
Party Platform
Immigration, National Security, and the Rule of Law

Immigration policy is a national security issue, for
which we have one test: Does it serve the national interest? By that standard,
Republicans know America
can have a strong immigration system without sacrificing the rule of law.

Enforcing the Rule of Law at the Border and
Throughout the Nation

Border security is essential to national security. In
an age of terrorism, drug cartels, and criminal gangs, allowing millions of
unidentified persons to enter and remain in this country poses grave risks to the
sovereignty of the United States
and the security of its people. We simply must be able to track who is entering
and leaving our country.

Our determination to uphold the rule of law begins with
more effective enforcement, giving our agents the tools and resources they need
to protect our sovereignty, completing the border fence quickly and securing
the borders, and employing complementary strategies to secure our ports of
entry. Experience shows that enforcement of existing laws is effective in
reducing and reversing illegal immigration.

Our commitment to the rule of law means smarter
enforcement at the workplace, against illegal workers and lawbreaking employers
alike, along with those who practice identity theft and traffic in fraudulent
documents. As long as jobs are available in the United States, economic incentives
to enter illegally will persist. But we must empower employers so they can know
with confidence that those they hire are permitted to work. That means that the
EVerify system which is an internet-based system that verifies the employment
authorization and identity of employees must be reauthorized. A phased in requirement
that employers use the E-Verify system must be enacted.

The rule of law means guaranteeing to law enforcement
the tools and coordination to deport criminal aliens without delay and
correcting court decisions that have made deportation so difficult. It means
enforcing the law against those who overstay their visas, rather than letting
millions flout the generosity that gave them temporary entry. It means imposing
maximum penalties on those who smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S., both for
their lawbreaking and for their cruel exploitation. It means requiring
cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement and real
consequences, including the denial of federal funds, for self described sanctuary
cities, which stand in open defiance of the federal and state statutes that
expressly prohibit such sanctuary policies, and which endanger the lives of U.S. citizens.

It does not mean driver’s licenses for illegal
aliens, nor does it mean that states should be allowed to flout the federal law
barring them from giving in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, nor does it
mean that illegal aliens should receive social security benefits, or other
public benefits, except as provided by federal law.

We oppose amnesty. The rule of law suffers if government
policies encourage or reward illegal activity. The American people’s rejection
of en masse legalizations is especially appropriate given the federal
government’s past failures to enforce the law.

Embracing Immigrant Communities

Today’s immigrants are walking in the steps of most
other Americans ancestors, seeking the American dream and contributing culturally
and economically to our nation. We celebrate the industry and love of liberty
of these fellow Americans. Both government and the private sector must do more
to foster legally present immigrants’ integration into American life to advance
respect for the rule of law and a common American identity. It is a national
disgrace that the first experience most new Americans have is with a
dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy defined by delay and confusion; we will no
longer tolerate those failures. In our multiethnic nation, everyone, immigrants
and native-born alike must embrace our core values of liberty, equality,
meritocracy, and respect for human dignity and the rights of women.

One sign of our unity is our English language. For
newcomers, it has always been the fastest route to prosperity in America.
English empowers. We support English as the official language in our nation, while
welcoming the ethnic diversity in the United States and the territories,
including language. Immigrants should be encouraged to learn English. English
is the accepted language of business, commerce, and legal proceedings, and it
is essential as a unifying cultural force. It is also important, as part of cultural
integration, that our schools provide better education in U.S. history and
civics for all children, thereby fostering a commitment to our national motto,
E Pluribus Unum.

We
are grateful to the thousands of new immigrants, many of them not yet citizens,
who are serving in the Armed Forces. Their patriotism is inspiring; it should
remind the institutions of civil society of the need to embrace newcomers,
assist their journey to full citizenship, and help their communities avoid
patterns of isolation.