Thompson voted to grant Amnesty to Cubans and Nicaraguans
As reported by the site NumbersUSA:
Explore posts in the same categories: ImmigrationIMMIGRATION PROFILE OF SEN. FRED THOMPSON:
Voted to grant amnesty to close to one million illegal aliens from Nicaragua and Cuba in 1997
Sen. Thompson voted to grant legal status to Nicaraguans and Cubans who had lived in the United States illegally since 1995, along with their spouses and minor unmarried children. The overall ten year impact of this legislation will be the addition of some 967,000 people to U.S. population.
Voted in 1996 to continue chain migration
Sen. Thompson in 1996 voted against the Simpson Amendment to S.1664. It was a vote in favor of a chain migration system that has been the primary reason for annual immigration levels snowballing from less than 300,000 in 1965 to around a million. Sen. Thompson supported provisions that allow immigrants to send for their adult relatives. Then each of those relatives can send for their and their spouse’s adult relatives, creating a never-ending and ever-growing chain. The bi-partisan Barbara Jordan Commission recommended doing away with the adult relative categories (begun only in the 1950s) in order to lessen wage depression among lower-paid American workers. The Simpson Amendment attempted to carry out that recommendation. But Sen. Thompson helped kill the reform by voting with the 80-20 majority against the amendment. Sen. Thompson’s vote helped continue a level of immigration that the Census Bureau projects will result in a doubled U.S. population in the next century.
Voted in favor of chain migration in 1996
Sen. Thompson voted in 1996 against the Feinstein Amendment to S.1664. The Feinstein Amendment would have reduced annual admission of spouses and minor children of citizens to 480,000 and significantly reduced annual limits other categories of chain migration such as parents of citizens and adult unmarried children of citizens. By voting against the Feinstein Amendment, Sen. Thompson voted in favor of a system of chain migration that has been the primary reason for annual immigration levels snowballing from less than 300,000 in 1965 to around a million today.
Voted to allow firms to lay off Americans to make room for foreign workers in 1998
Before the Senate passed the H-1B doubling bill (S.1723), Sen. Thompson had an opportunity to vote for a measure requiring U.S. firms to check a box on a form attesting that they had first sought an American worker for the job. Sen. Thompson voted against that, joining those who said the requirement would give government too much authority over corporations’ right to hire whomever they please from whatever country.
In 1996, removed higher fines for businesses which hire illegal aliens
Sen. Thompson, in committee consideration of S.1664 protected businesses from having to pay higher fines when they are caught hiring illegal aliens. Under the idea that current fines were not enough of a deterrent against businesses cutting their labor costs by hiring illegal aliens, the Senate immigration subcommittee approved higher fines. Various study commissions have found that the willingness of U.S. businesses to hire illegal aliens is the No. 1 incentive for foreign workers to become illegal aliens here. But Sen. Thompson voted with a 10-8 majority in the Judiciary Committee to remove the higher fines from the 1996 legislation against illegal immigration.
Tried to kill voluntary pilot programs for workplace verification in 1996
Sen. Thompson voted IN FAVOR of the Abraham Amendment to S.1664. He was part of a coalition of pro-business conservatives and liberal civil libertarians who tried to use the amendment to kill the establishment of voluntary pilot programs in high-immigration states. The programs were intended to assist employers in verifying whether people they had just hired had the legal right to work in this country. Such verification is considered by many experts to be an essential tool for withdrawing the job magnet from illegal aliens. The verification system established by S.1664 did not involve an ID card. Rather it provided that when new workers wrote down their Social Security number on an application, employers could phone into a national verification system to help assure that the number was a real number and belonged to the person giving it. In earlier smaller pilot programs, businesses had hailed the verification system for making it easier for them to avoid hiring illegal aliens. Sen. Thompson was unsuccessful in stopping the voluntary verification system. The Senate tabled the by a 54-46 vote.
Conservatives Against Fred Thompson 
June 15, 2007 at 3:02 am
Fred Thompson is a neocon globalist not unlike McCain.
Although Fred Thompson is tougher than McCain and Giuliani on border enforcement, which isn’t saying much seeing how they line up with Barack Obama, he had a rather lackluster record on immigration while in the Senate. As one commentator notes: “Overall, Americans for Better Immigration gives [Thompson] a career grade of C; on chain migration, C; visa lottery, C-; reducing unnecessary visas, F; on reducing asylum fraud, C-; on reducing amnesties, D; and on interior enforcement, C+. Although he was tough on border control, he was lacking in almost every other area.”
Fred Thompson also supports affirmative action, and ideologically worships free trade, regardless how much it harms America. Historically, conservatives have opposed free trade, but Thompson, like others, has been “neoconned” into backing it.
He furthermore is a “fellow” at the American Enterprise Institute, one of the largest (and most sinister) neocon think-tanks, which demonstrates where his true loyalty lies. If you did not receive the Burkean memo, the transformation of the Middle East to liberal democracy is Jacobin, not conservative. There is not a single thing conservative about the membership of AEI. They are neocon / neoliberal globalists.
Why are neoncons backing Thompson? Ideally, being ex-Trotskyites themselves, neocons would prefer a liberal candidate, like McCain, Giuliani or Romney. But they see that conservatives deplore these candidates, and now are going to try to peddle Fred Thompson, who is just socially conservative enough and just tough enough on the borders, even if it is feigned, to woo naive GOP voters. But let’s hope this nefarious neocon plot fails.
Let’s pray that the more real conservatives learn about Fred Thompson, the more unacceptable he will appear. Use your BRAIN America, and not fall for sharply dressed, full set of ‘sexy’ hair (Romney/Edwards), nor for someone who ‘Acts’ on TV.
A Dean of a College I know was touting a large RUDY sign. I asked him why Rudy, and he said, “Because he’s from MY state…I gotta support the home team!”. This guy has a MASTERS DEGREE and TEACHES! He has no friggin clue. I encourage all of you to not vote on ‘popularity’ but rather on who is the best candidate for the job. Fred Thompson will KEEP US IN IRAQ FOR A LONG LONG TIME according to his Fox News interview. Please research for yourselves America. It should make you puke if you truely knew who some of these people are.
June 15, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I thought Cubans had automatic amnesty anyways as soon as they got to shore?
June 16, 2007 at 6:26 pm
I don’t know about you “conservatives”, but I’m happy to see that Fred Thompson voted in favor of giving sanctuary to people considered to be enemies of the state by the communist Castro and Ortega regimes. Many of these people were from the highly-skilled and well-educated middle class that the Marxist regimes were trying to eradicate. As politcal prisoners of the Castro and Sandanista dictatorships, these people would have faced inprisonment, torture and “mental treatment” by their oppressors, if not outright execution for “crimes” against the proletariat.
Regime change in Nicaragua was an unstated aim of the Reagan administration, which supplied arms to the Contras who shared that goal. The pursuit of that policy made the USA morally responsible for the well-being of those with courage enough to stand up to the tyranny of Ortega. When these people were left with no other option but to flee their homeland, The U.S. was obligated to take them in.
I say any freedom-loving person fleeing from the Marxists in Cuba and Nicaragua in the 1990’s deserved a chance to enjoy the blessings of liberty we too often take for granted here in the good ol’ USA.
June 18, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Why don’t we let Fred speak for himself:
June 18, 2007 at 9:50 pm
I also noticed that no names are posted here. Silent attacks or cowardice? Also nice to see old Nathan LaHue, who trolls the internets for positive Thompson posts. Is this one of the Rosie O’Donnell led 9/11 for truth sites?
July 7, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Well I would say he is a CFR backing NWO supporter who will not get my vote.
Ron Paul2008