Immigration Scorecard

of the

Presidential candidates

for 2008

Although U.S. Border Control has been officially rating Congressional candidates on their immigration votes since 1995, we have seldom offered our opinions on Presidential candidates.

However, with so much at stake, and, with the urgings of so many people who have come to rely on our Scorecards for the candidates, we intend to offer some guidance on the Presidential candidates with respect to their positions on border and immigration policy.

Disclaimer: U.S. Border Control, as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit lobbying group, cannot and does not endorse or oppose candidates for public office. The information we provide is intended to be used as a guide for people interested in knowing where candidates stand on border and immigration issues. Our ratings do not evaluate a candidate’s positions on all the other issues and we strongly recommend further research so that you may make an informed decision when you go to the polls.

Methodology: Our ratings deal in facts and historical data. They completely ignore a candidate’s campaign rhetoric as history has proven such promises mean nothing to politicians.

Whenever possible, we rely on those recorded votes that we have determined to be the critical vote in the legislative process. Often, this vote may not be the final vote, but a procedural vote or cloture motion. In order to ensure that we have chosen the most appropriate votes for our Scorecard, we use a double-blind study asking experts on both sides of the issue which vote was the turning point for the legislation.

Finally, a candidate’s score can be raised or lowered by the number of sponsorships and cosponsorships of bills that we determine to be for or against immigration reform. Sponsorship of immigration legislation and the candidate’s efforts to move the legislation are weighted as these actions are important indications of a candidate’s willingness to take a public position on the issue.

All that being said, our ratings are imperfect due to the fact that, in some cases, there is simply insufficient data to make a definitive decision. In those instances, we put an asterisk (*) next to the score so you will know this is a rating made on insufficient or unreliable data.

It bears mentioning that we are nonpartisan. Frankly, we would love to see more Democrats taking positions against amnesty; closing the border; or voting against anchor babies; etc. We feel that core Democrat issues are being totally ignored while that party, like the Republicans, pander after the immigrant vote.

Our scorecard gives failing grades to ALL the Democratic candidates for President of the United States. Every one of them earned an “F”, based on their recorded votes. The voting record in Congress for Governor Bill Richardson, admittedly, is dated to when he served in the U.S. Congress. But the fact that he earned straight zeros from us at that time, earns him a F grade on our Scoreboard. But, due to the age of the data, he also gets an asterisk because people can and do change, sometimes.

The Republican candidates are spread all over the spectrum, but the largest number of candidates is, again, in our F-rated column. These include Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. While only Senator McCain has sufficient votes to earn his “F”, the actions of Governor Huckabee and Mayor Guiliani are sufficient to warrant their grades.

So now that you know what we did and how we did it, here are our interim ratings of the candidates for

the office of President f the United States:

Republicans Score Democrats Score

Rudy Giuliani F Joseph Biden F

Mike Huckabee F Hillary Clinton F

Duncan Hunter A Chris Dodd F

John McCain F John Edwards F

Ron Paul A Dennis Kucinich F

Mitt Romney C+ Barak Obama F

Fred Thompson C* Bill Richardson* F