The border: Hot-button issue takes center stage

The Star invited the candidates in Congressional Districts 1, 2 and 3 to respond to the question: What will it take to get Congress to act on immigration, and what, specifically, will you do to make it happen?

Next: The candidates for governor and U.S. representative answer questions from their opponents next Sunday, Oct. 5. Endorsements begin the following week.

The Star invited Ron Barber to respond to the question: What will it take to get Congress to act on immigration, and what, specifically, will you do to make it happen?

Barber's response is as follows:

Washington has failed to secure the border and fix the broken immigration system. Congress must put aside partisan politics and work together to solve this crisis.

Since day one, I have worked with Republicans and Democrats to create a smart border security strategy and fix our broken immigration system. The very first vote I took as Southern Arizona’s representative was for stronger border security.

I stood up to the feds when they tried to get rid of a critical radar system that detects drug smugglers and stopped them when they tried to reduce the number of agents on the border. I worked with the Arizona delegation to put 170 additional customs agents on the border to improve the flow of legal commerce between the U.S. and Mexico.

In cooperation with my Republican colleagues, we advanced the Border Security Results Act to establish operational control of the border. I worked to make sure this legislation would ensure that Southern Arizonans who live and work on the border are consulted in the development of that strategy.

I joined Republicans and Democrats to introduce legislation to address the increase in unaccompanied minors illegally entering the U.S. and to secure the border.

Under this legislation, children who are entering the U.S. illegally from Central America would get a hearing with an immigration judge within seven days of their detention. The judge then has 72 hours to determine the child’s status.

Unfortunately, this legislation fell victim to partisan bickering.

I support the same bipartisan approach that Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake helped pass in the Senate. That measure would secure our border, create a temporary worker program and implement a process for people who came to this country illegally to get right with the law. I have sponsored a bill in the House that would accomplish these goals.

I also support the Dream Act, which would allow young adults who came here as children through no fault of their own to serve in the military or get a college degree and become citizens.

We can solve this crisis, but it requires members of both parties to put aside partisanship and find common ground. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

The Star invited Raul Grijalva to respond to the question: What will it take to get Congress to act on immigration, and what, specifically, will you do to make it happen?

Grijalva's response is as follows:

This question presupposes that all efforts up until this point by activists, lawmakers and the public at large simply fell short, and that Congress is just waiting to be convinced by a more compelling argument. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Congressional Republicans refuse to address immigration reform. Bipartisan legislation that passed the U.S. Senate was not enough to move House Republican leaders to act. The Senate bill wasn’t perfect — like any compromise, good provisions were lost in the give and take of negotiations. But the good far outweighed the bad, which is why it had such overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate.

But instead of joining them, my opponent and her Republican allies in Congress deride all progress as amnesty; they demand a secure border before ever addressing the humanitarian crisis our broken system creates; and they ratchet up fear with cue words like terrorists and diseases coming over the border.

Time and again, they refuse to be part of the solution — more often than not, they’d rather stoke flames and exploit the issue. Look no further than my opponent, who bellows against immigration reform but proposes no compromise or solution to move our nation forward.

While Republican leadership continues caving to the extremists in their conference, ensuring that immigration reform never receives a vote, I will continue pushing for the president to act where the GOP will not. President Obama can and should intervene through executive authority, and he can start immediately by extending his deferred action program beyond the DREAM students it currently protects.

I will also work to keep pressure up on congressional Republicans. Public opinion is the most important factor in ending their intransigence. House Republicans can stall, but ultimately it is the core decency and fairness of the American people that will force passage of immigration reform.

As a legislator, I will continue working and supporting comprehensive immigration reform legislation. As a husband and a father, I will continue fighting for a fairer system, because no family should be split apart as a result of our laws. As an Arizonan, I will ensure the borderlands are recognized as the vital and complex region that they are.

Reforming our immigration laws is one of the greatest challenges of our time. I will continue working with anyone willing to act in good faith to reduce the suffering caused by our broken immigration system.

The Star invited Ann Kirkpatrick to respond to the question: What will it take to get Congress to act on immigration, and what, specifically, will you do to make it happen?

Kirkpatrick's response is as follows:

Arizona has suffered from federal inaction to fix our broken immigration system. Piecemeal legislation can’t fix it, and executive action can’t fix it. That’s why Congress must act and pass comprehensive immigration reform — and the president must recognize the legislative branch’s role in this badly needed debate. More than a year ago, the U.S. Senate, including Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, passed tough, fair, comprehensive reform. It’s inexcusable — and downright pathetic — that House leaders are stonewalling on an issue so important to our nation.

Arizona families, small-business owners, chambers of commerce, educators, farmers and so many others want reform and a secure border. They know it will stimulate our economy and provide security for communities throughout our state. We need to listen to the ranchers and other folks living along the border to ensure they feel safe in their homes and on their land, and we must work to create a fair, effective system to fill the labor needs of our farms and businesses. Comprehensive immigration reform puts our nation on the path to accomplishing these things.

But instead of supporting CIR, some elected officials have proposed short-term fixes or, worse, no fixes at all. Those suggestions, however, will not solve any other crisis that arises as long as we continue to delay a vast overhaul of a system that has failed Arizona and our nation for too long. Comprehensive immigration reform is the best way to provide the brave men and women who protect our border the resources to do their jobs while also addressing the broken system that continues to endanger our communities and hold our local economies back.

The House needs to vote — now — on the bipartisan, comprehensive immigration bill passed by the U.S. Senate more than a year ago. It’s the right thing for Arizona families and it’s the right thing for our nation.

The Star invited Martha McSally to respond to the question: What will it take to get Congress to act on immigration, and what, specifically, will you do to make it happen?

McSally's response is as follows: 

Is it any wonder why so many people are fed up with Congress and the lack of results that has become the new normal in Washington? Immigration is not the only important issue getting shoved aside while members of Congress and the president bicker and squabble. Important needs like simplifying our tax code to incentivize economic growth, establishing a better strategy to secure our border, and developing new solutions to make higher education more affordable are just some of the critical issues piling up because our leaders aren’t willing to work together.

A perfect example is the recent border security bill that would have provided more resources to secure the border, help federal agencies manage the influx of unaccompanied minors, and provide badly needed humanitarian relief. Instead of coming together, our politicians proved once again they were more concerned with making the other side look bad, including Congressman Barber. He voted against the bill simply because it was what his party boss Nancy Pelosi wanted him to do. His actions perfectly represent what is wrong with Washington today — too many politicians looking out for themselves instead of doing what’s best for us.

Fixing our broken immigration system will only happen when we have congressmen willing to put what’s best for our country and the people they serve ahead of themselves. I served 26 years in uniform and know what it means to put country before self.

Our first priorities must be to secure the border and modernize our legal immigration system so that it contributes to economic growth. It has to be nimble to respond to economic factors as they change.

Businesses, students and hard workers that want to come to America to create jobs and contribute should be incentivized to do so through a simple, smart and nimble visa, green card, and citizenship system. Students who graduate from the University of Arizona in science and technology fields should have a green card stapled to their diplomas instead of going back to places like China and India to compete against us (which is what happens now). Workers in lower-skill industries should have a legal and safe means to come here and add to our economy.

These are commonsense proposals. All that is missing is the key ingredient: leadership. I’m prepared to bring my leadership to Congress to advance these bipartisan solutions and give Southern Arizona the strong voice it deserves.

The Star invited Gabriela Saucedo Mercer to respond to the question: What will it take to get Congress to act on immigration, and what, specifically, will you do to make it happen?

Mercer's response is as follows: 

The unspoken assumption behind this question is the oft-repeated mantra of the Obama administration about current immigration into the U.S. — that our immigration policy is somehow “broken” and now it is up to Congress to “fix it.”

The only thing “broken” about our current immigration policy is that the Obama administration refuses to enforce the laws on the books and instead seeks to sidestep and negate written law (the very “laws” that this reputed “constitutional scholar” swore to uphold when he took his oath of office) to pander to and accommodate different Hispanic voting blocs in order to secure a perpetual Democrat voter base for the Democrat Party.

So what will it take to get Congress to act on the non-enforcement of our immigration policy, a fiasco wherein we currently experience 40,000-plus men, women and children illegally crossing our borders every month from over 130 nations around the world? It may take a terrorist attack with weapons smuggled over our nearly nonexistent borders in order for this Congress to hold the Executive Branch and Mr. Obama’s feet to the fire and insist they perform their primary duty according to the Constitution of the United States — to protect the territorial integrity of the nation of the United States and, by extension, all U.S. residents within those borders which this administration, and Mr. Grijalva, would apparently prefer to see erased.

While I personally would like to see far more legal immigration into our nation and a vast streamlining of the process for worthy peoples around our planet to become citizens of the finest country in the world, relaxing our standards of admission and turning our Border Patrol into nothing more than head counters and baby sitters does not constitute immigration reform. The Constitution and common sense demands that all people who wish to enter our country do so legally so that those who have an extensive criminal background or those who may be potential terrorists or health risks can be prevented from doing so in order to protect the lives and welfare of the citizens of the United States of America. I will work to ensure enforcement of our current laws.

The Star invited Andy Tobin to respond to the question: What will it take to get Congress to act on immigration, and what, specifically, will you do to make it happen?

Tobin's response is as follows: 

Immigration is an issue front and center in the minds of voters in Arizona and across the country. While there are several components to the immigration issue, the first issue we must address is securing our border by increasing Border Patrol funding and putting the National Guard on the border.

Recently, Congress passed a bill to increase border security funding, but Ann Kirkpatrick and most of her fellow Democrats voted against it. Sadly, Ann’s record of voting against border security dates back to her time as a state representative and that’s troubling. We cannot have representatives in Washington who continually put their party’s political well-being before their constituents’ well-being. The border funding bill is currently sitting on Harry Reid’s desk along with 351 other bills that have passed the House, but Reid refuses to act on them.

This summer, we experienced a humanitarian crisis on our border because of the lack of leadership by the Obama administration on immigration — you cannot make threats by executive order when you don’t get your way. Our Founding Fathers created checks and balances in our system of government to prevent any one branch from usurping all the authority and power from another branch. The president cannot continue to give Congress the cold shoulder and rule by presidential edict.

I have talked to Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters all across our district who have told me that they’re concerned about what an open border means in a world becoming increasingly more dangerous and threats to our homeland becoming more real.

The border security issue is a national security issue, and we need to get serious about securing our border against drug cartels, human trafficking enterprises and other people who wish to do us harm. It is time that we put people over politics in Washington and make good on the commitments we make to truly secure the border.