Senator Conrad Burns' Record On Immigration Reform And Illegal Aliens

Senator Conrad Burns is a Republican currently serving Montana and has served in the Senate from 1989-Present.

Senator Conrad Burns has had an excellent record when it comes to border security. There are currently at least 12 million (with estimates reaching as high as 30 million) illegal aliens in this country. The first line of defense is controlling our porous borders. Senator Conrad Burns clearly wants to secure our borders and the votes show that.

After an illegal alien has entered our country the next line of defense is interior enforcement. Currently employers are not required to verify that an applicant or employee is legally allowed to work in this country. In addition, local law enforcement at the state and local level have had their hands tied when dealing with illegal aliens by not even allowing them to inquire about arrestees' citizenship status. Senator Conrad Burns doesn't seem concerned about interior enforcement and wants to leave things as ineffective as they currently are.

If an illegal alien avoids being picked up, or remains here after receiving deportation orders, the next thing they look for are incentives, rewards and benefits. Amnesty is the largest of these rewards and gives illegal aliens a path to citizenship or makes them instantly legal. Senator Conrad Burns does not approve of amnesty for illegal aliens and has worked against it.

Senator Conrad Burns has voted against giving illegal aliens further rewards and other incentives to come such as in-state tuition, educational benefits, welfare and health care services.

Once here, many illegal aliens have what is known as an "anchor baby". This is caused by a misinterpretation of our 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which calls for all born on American soil to be given US Citizenship. Unfortunately this Amendment has been misinterpreted and was initially put in place to ensure that freed slaves were citizens and has been twisted and misused to include even the children of foreigners who cross illegally into this country and have a child. Once born this new "citizen" allows the parent to gain benefits at the expense of the taxpayers. Senator Conrad Burns has not yet had a chance to vote on anchor babies and the increased illegal population that they support through taxpayer dollars.

On the issue of legal immigration Senator Conrad Burns has not taken a stand for or against the visa lottery. Each year 50,000 names are chosen to come to the US legally without regards to their needs, intentions, education level or whether they would benefit the United States. "Winning the lottery" takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to immigration. Once in the country these new immigrants can apply for taxpayer funded services.

Once an immigrant is legally here they can send home to bring in more adults from their family such as parents, siblings and adult children. That legal immigrant can then bring in more family members directly related to them. This is called chain migration and Senator Conrad Burns is opposed to it. Chain migration has exponential growth and is the primary cause of the 4-fold increase in immigration to this country since 1960.

A high majority of refugee and asylum seekers to this country are not by international definition in need of relocation. This program is ripe with fraud and Senator Conrad Burns doesn't want to stop the fraud and may even want it to increase.

Senator Conrad Burns has voted neutral regarding increases in permanent and temporary foreign work visas such as the H1-B. Sometimes foreign workers are desirable in fields where there is a lack of American workers to fill the positions. All too often these work visa programs are abused by employers and used to get lower cost workers into this country rather than hiring American workers. For the foreign worker it is common to see them not return to their home country and remain here on an expired visa.

Overall, Senator Conrad Burns has a moderate record when it comes to immigration reform.

Senator Conrad Burns seems to take immigration reform as a pick and choose issue. We would like to see more action and less talk. We cannot give Conrad Burns our seal of approval.

• Representative Dennis Rehberg's Record On Immigration Reform And Illegal Aliens
• Senator Max Baucus' Record On Immigration Reform And Illegal Aliens