OnTheIssuesLogo

Harold Ford on Immigration

Democratic Representative (TN-9)


Claims Corker hired four illegal immigrants

Q: Your views on illegal immigration?

FORD: I have never hired an illegal immigrant. He has. Four of them. A worksite of his was raided, by federal law enforcement agents. I was not with Pres. Bush on granting amnesty to illegal immigrants.

CORKER: No one has ever worked for me who's an illegal immigrant. 18 years ago, one of thousands of my subcontractors hired four people--and the INS applauded me for how quickly I ended that problem.

FORD: Why didn't you just fire them when you learned about it? Why did you wait for the INS to come back 3 times before doing something?

CORKER: We had a contract, so we couldn't just fire them. We rectified it quickly. My opponent is trying to make an issue out of an issue that doesn't exist.

FORD: You ought to take responsibility for knowing that there were illegals working on your site, and you did nothing to stop them.

Source: 2006 TN Senate debate, at University of Chattanooga Oct 10, 2006

Voted YES on preventing tipping off Mexicans about Minuteman Project.

Voting YES on this amendment supports the Minuteman Project, a group of volunteers who have taken on surveillance of the Mexican border for illegal immigrants. The amendment states that US funds will not be used to tell the Mexican government about the whereabouts of the Minuteman Project volunteers. Proponents of the Minuteman Project say that they are volunteer citizens doing what the federal government SHOULD be doing, but has failed to do. Opponents of the Minuteman Project say that they are vigilantes at best and anti-Mexican racists at worst. The amendment states:
None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to provide a foreign government information relating to the activities of an organized volunteer civilian action group, operating in the State of California, Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona, unless required by international treaty.