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Ralph Nader
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"I take the immigration thing from a broader scope. First of all, if we stop supporting dictators and oligarchs in Central and South America, the desperation of people to go north to feed their families would be severely diminished. So we cause that kind of push north. Then we allow these corporations to be a magnet in America to bring and hire these people in order to drive down wages in our country and exploit these immigrants."
Emailed response from the Nader campaign's communications director on Oct. 18, 2008: "Ralph Nader supports a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants."
"This is very difficult because you are giving a green light to cross the border illegally. I don't like the idea of legalization because then the question is how do you prevent the next wave and the next? I like the idea of giving workers and children--they are working, they are having their taxes withheld, they are performing a valuable service, even though they are illegally here--of giving them the same benefits of any other workers."
"Q. What is your stance on numeric caps for legal immigration and/or quotas for specific countries for immigration, and whether there should be amnesties for illegal immigrants? NADER: One way is to provide work permits for people who come in and do work for short periods of time that Americans don’t want to do instead of criminalizing the border."
The Fresno (CA) Bee Oct 22, 2000, by John Ellis
Q. Do you support a guest worker program? NADER. "Yes, under work permits, so everything is above board. So they are not exploited. Right now, employers have the best of both worlds. They exploit workers, they make huge profits, and they escape prosecution. Farm labor, whether American or unlawful immigrants, don’t have the protection under labor laws that industrial workers have. The idea is to bring all farm labor under the Fair Labor Standards Act."
The Fresno (CA) Bee Oct 22, 2000, by John Ellis
Because border enforcement is tied in many voters' minds with "homeland security," none of the candidates want to be seen as weak on the issue. All except Ralph Nader at one point favored building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Nader would 'decriminalize the border' ... At the same time, Nader strongly opposes any proposals, such as one made recently by Mexican president-elect Vicente Fox, that the U.S.-Mexico frontier some day be made legally porous.
"As long as our foreign policy supports dictators and oligarchs south of our borders, there are going to be desperate, oppressed people moving north over our border where employers like Tysons Foods illegally employ them at very low wages. But even these low wage jobs are many times what would be made in Mexico, making them still attractive. We need to enforce the law against employers. It is hard to blame desperately poor people who want to feed their families and are willing to work hard to do so. You have to start enforcement with Washington and Wall Street. Enforcement is nearly non-existent – so much so that it has become a conscious policy to ignore both the labor and immigration laws by successive Republican and Democratic Administrations, including not enforcing laws against cruel sweatshops in the United States, from New York City to Los Angeles. Such is the power of employers."
“Crossing the border to feed their families because we support their brutalization? I don’t think any of us wouldn’t do that. Number two, the large employers who want these workers are the magnet, and they want these workers because…they can work for dirt-cheap wages, and they’re frightened and they can be exploited…. This brings down labor standards and working conditions on other low-income workers in this country…. There needs to be law enforcement against these employers that take on unlawful entry workers. But we shouldn’t be cruel toward them. A lot of what they’re forced to do is because of our foreign and military policy, and the greed of [corporations].”
"The second is to enforce the law against employers. It is hard to blame desperately poor people who want to feed their families and are willing to work their heads off. You have to start with Washington and Wall Street."
"When you have illegal workers in this country, and their taxes are being withheld, you give them the same fair treatment as all other workers."
[Nader] Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding immigration: [Did NOT indicate support] b) Establish English as the official national language.