Election 2008: The Issues

Co-sponsor (along with Sen. Edward Kennedy) of a sweeping 2007 immigration reform bill favored by President Bush and a majority of Senate Democrats that called for strengthening security of the border, setting up an enhanced guest worker program, and setting up procedures that would allow most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to eventually gain American citizenship. The bill failed, and in 2008 McCain has said that the primary focus should be on securing U.S. borders with "physical and virtual barriers.

Originally supported the McCain-Kennedy proposal, although McCain blames Obama for voting for Senate amendments designed to derail it. In 2008, Obama criticized the Immigration and Naturalization Service for conducting raids of workplaces that hire illegal residents, and he has called for increasing legal immigration. Continues to support the "path toward citizenship" envisioned in the McCain-Kennedy bill; and citing auto safety concerns, and has come out in favor of allowing illegal residents to obtain driver's licenses.