Immigration

Statement

As a candidate for Governor of Illinois, I have outlined a bold program to bring our state back from the terrible conditions we're now facing. My four-point agenda is all about creating jobs, lowering our tax burden, improving our schools, and placing term limits on the career politicians in Springfield who have brought our state to near bankruptcy.

But as I campaign in our communities, I am struck by another issue facing us -- our badly broken immigration system. Immigration reform is a federal issue that needs to be addressed by Congress and the President, but it's also very much a local issue, because thousands of Illinoisans are forced to cope with Washington's failures.

Much as some people would like to use immigration as a partisan political weapon, the failure to deal with it is truly bipartisan. President Obama has deported more immigrants that any other president, causing extremely painful family hardships and hurting our economy. When Democrats controlled Congress and held the White House in 2009-10, they had the chance to pass immigration reform, as President Obama promised he would, and yet they did nothing. The humanitarian crisis at the border today cries out for leadership that is lacking.

Unfortunately, my own Republican Party is even more to blame. Too many Republicans in Washington choose to ignore the problem. Even worse, some Republicans are downright hostile to immigrants, failing to recognize that America's past, present, and future would not be nearly as bright and prosperous without our culture and heritage of immigration.

Not all Republicans are that way. In March, I attended a pro-immigration reform rally in Chicago along with former Illinois Governors Jim Edgar and Jim Thompson and former U.S. House Speaker from Illinois Dennis Hastert, all Republicans. Republican Illinois Senator Mark Kirk voted in favor of last year's bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate.

My Lieutenant Governor running mate, Evelyn Sanguinetti, from DuPage County, was born in Miami to Latino parents who immigrated to America from Ecuador and Cuba. Evelyn knows from personal experience the hardships of poverty, language barriers, and discrimination that too many in our Latino immigrant communities face. But like so many others, Evelyn overcame those difficulties through hard work and determination, built a family, accomplished a great career, and has now joined me in pursuing the second highest office in our state (she's the first Latina candidate to do so in Illinois).

I'm convinced that we can and we must make Illinois a place that is welcoming to immigrants. The Latino and Asian communities are central to the fabric of Illinois today, just as Polish, Greek, and other immigrant communities were when they first arrived here generations ago and still are today. Our amazing history of immigration is one of the things that truly separates America from the rest of world, and has made us the most prosperous country in human history.

So while my focus as governor will be my four point program of a growing economy, lower taxes, better schools, and term limits, I will also be a voice in favor of immigration reform and in support of vibrant immigrant communities in our state. I will advocate changing our broken national immigration system, to secure our borders and prevent more from entering our country illegally, but also to increase the number of those who can legally come here, and to treat those who are already here in a humane way that preserves families and integrates them into the mainstream of our economy and society. After all, that is the American way.

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