Cracking down on the U.S.-Mexico border, hiring thousands of employees to find companies employing illegal immigrants and allocating millions of dollars to new technology for better surveillance are part of a new anti-immigration bill introduced by Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz.
ASU political organizations disagree over aspects of the proposed legislation.
"It sounds like it is a very good bill," said Mike Jaskie, president of the College Republicans and a computational mathematics senior.
Jaskie said he thinks the initiative is the most thorough bill in Congress that deals with immigration.
Cole Hickman, president of the Young Democrats and a political science junior, does not completely agree with Jaskie. He said he thinks part of the bill is unconstitutional.
Hickman said the Supreme Court would likely turn down the section that states that any child born in the United States is not a citizen unless one of the parents is in the country legally.
"[Hayworth] is trying to change the rules for citizenship," Hickman said.
The ideal that you are a citizen if you are born in the United States is essential to America, Hickman said.
"[It] is one of the things that is solidified in U.S. law," he added.
Hayworth's proposal also supports increasing green cards for foreign workers, but does not support guest-worker programs like those of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Jaskie said this part of the bill would be the area where changes would be considered. He said he supports looking into the guest-worker program, but thinks America needs to start fixing the problem now on hand.
He said that in order to make sure guest-worker programs succeed, the United States should have a solid effort to protect against illegal immigration.
"Hayworth has it right because he wants to focus on illegals first," Jaskie said.
Hayworth's proposal calls for 10,000 more Border Patrol agents and $2.5 billion dollars worth of specialized surveillance and detection technology.
"I'm glad that there is an effort to provide more money for border security because our governor has been asking for it," Hickman said.
Hickman wants the funds for extra border patrolling to go to mandates that already exist, not toward a new one.
"I think [Hayworth] should focus on what is broken now," he said.
Another aspect of Hayworth's initiative focuses on businesses that are found employing illegal immigrants.
These businesses could be fined $50,000 per worker as opposed to the $10,000 fine the country has now. To find these illegal immigrants, Hayworth is calling for 10,000 Department of Homeland Security personnel for the job.
The bill "makes a strong and real remedy [for immigration]," Jaskie said.
The crackdown on businesses is an issue because many of the illegal immigrants who are in the country were, at one point, here legally, said Adrian Pantoja, a political science professor.
"You could build a Great Wall of China on the border, but that wouldn't solve the problem," he said.
Reach the reporter at amanda.m.gonser@asu.edu.
