Issues
Immigration
The Abboud Immigration Platform
"Illegal immigration is less about the individuals who are looking for a better life in America, and more about the egregious abuses of the U.S. employers that hire them; abuses perpetrated against the undocumented worker and abuses to the spirit and intent of the laws of our land. We cannot demonize these immigrants, but we must hold those who encourage this kind of illegal entry accountable for breaking U.S. law."
- Bob Abboud, Democratic Candidate for Congress in Illinois' 16th District
Protecting America, Human Rights and Ensuring Accountability
Illegal immigration is an issue that divides Americans, demonizes hard working people unnecessarily and requires a common sense approach to confront this old challenge. It is clear that from a national security perspective, securing our borders need to be a priority. However, building a giant fence isn't logistically effective, or economically viable. In order to curtail the large numbers of undocumented workers entering the U.S. we must address their motivation for doing so and fundamentally reform our broken immigration system.
First, we must address the growing abuses perpetrated by businesses in the U.S. who hire undocumented workers. Bob will fight to make a significant change to the Sarbanes/Oxley legislation that outlines financial reporting standards for American businesses. When elected, Bob will pass an amendment to that law that will require all businesses to verify the citizenship, or legal status, of all their workers and the employees of their sub-contractors. If businesses fail to comply with this new law they will be forced to pay a heavy fine, and if they continue to resist their license will be revoked. We cannot blame immigrants for wanting to come here to build a better life, particularly when our businesses encourage them to do so, and to do so illegally. This abuse threatens the human and labor rights of undocumented workers and creates an unfair playing field for American workers. Addressing this loophole in our immigration laws will dramatically reduce the number of undocumented workers entering the U.S.
Secondly, it is critical that we fundamentally reform a structurally broken legal immigration system by modernizing our immigrations services. If we make the legal form of immigrating to our country less expensive for taxpayers, applicants and more accessible, more foreign nationals will be motivated to avail themselves of the legal path to the United States.
