Senator Arlen Specter's Record On Immigration Reform And Illegal Aliens

Senator Arlen Specter is a Republican currently serving Pennsylvania and has served in the Senate from 1981-Present.

Senator Arlen Specter has had a fairly good 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 Arlen Specter seems very concerned about securing our borders.

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 Arlen Specter has worked hard to allow state and local law enforcement to help in reducing illegal immigration and to put in place workplace verification systems allowing employers to quickly verify the legal working status of their employees.

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 Arlen Specter has voted in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens.

Senator Arlen Specter has a mixed voting record when it comes to 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 Arlen Specter 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 Arlen Specter is in favor of 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 Arlen Specter wants it to continue. 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 Arlen Specter has not taken a stand against it.

Senator Arlen Specter has voted for 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 Arlen Specter has a moderate record when it comes to immigration reform.

Senator Arlen Specter is among the low end of immigration reformers. We would like to see more action and less talk. We cannot give Arlen Specter our seal of approval.

You can contact Arlen Specter through the locations below:

Website: http://specter.senate.gov
Phone: (202) 224-4254
Fax: (202) 228-1229

Washington DC Office:

District Offices:

Other Representatives From PA: