Our history is a story of immigrants. The California Republican Party welcomes and values each and every legal immigrant.

America continues to symbolize hope and promise to people from around the world. We believe new immigrants help make our great nation greater still. The Republican Party is pro-immigrant. Yet we take issue with political advocacy groups that blur the line between lawful and unlawful immigration in public discourse. The result of this blurring is a poorly enforced immigration policy and an uncontrolled border – millions of people here illegally, undocumented, and living in the shadows. This isn’t good for anyone.

The current problem is exacerbated by the failure of elected Democrats to negotiate in good faith to fix our broken immigration system. This failure leaves in place a government bureaucracy that produces wait times to immigrate legally into the United States that can exceed 15 years. The truth is, the United States cannot accommodate the hundreds of millions of people in the world who long to live here permanently. The United States government has an obligation to all Americans to control our borders. As Ronald Reagan said, “A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”

Our current immigration policy is out of step with the modern world and does not work for California or America. We want to fix it. A sound immigration policy would affirm our country’s absolute right to protect our borders. At the same time, a sound immigration policy would permit legal entry to the workers California and America must have. We support visa and guest worker programs that allow people to legally enter the United States, and leave and return if needed, through a flexible and well- managed system. It is indefensible that the Federal government puts California’s high-tech dominance at risk, and also stifles the ability of our farmers to procure the labor needed to timely harvest the fruits and vegetables that feed our country.

To ensure our immigration laws are adhered to, we support devoting more resources to border control, and increasing penalties for overstaying visas. We will support implementing a nationwide e-verify employment system once the necessary visa and guest worker programs are in place.

We also support the expedited repatriation of all violent criminals who are undocumented and, when repatriation is not possible, a full prosecution under U.S. law. Further, we believe that federal funding should be denied to sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration officials. These cities are undermining Federal law and putting our citizens at risk.

We believe that only after the border is secured and the legal immigration system modernized, can we as a nation address the complicated issue of what to do with the millions of people who are currently here illegally. Like all Americans, Republicans hold diverse views on the issue.

There is, however, consensus in the Republican Party that any solution must adhere to the following guiding principle. We will not support a policy that grants amnesty. Amnesty only rewards and encourages more law breaking.

We support the requirement that law enforcement enforce all laws, including immigration laws.

Finally, we believe that once one enters the United States as a legal immigrant and desires to become a citizen, one should endeavor to become an American. Learning English is a vital part of life in the United States. Therefore, fluency in English must be the goal of California’s education programs. No matter a person’s native tongue, all citizens of the United States must be afforded equal opportunity. English both binds the nation and empowers individuals of all backgrounds to fully participate in the American experience. For this reason, we support the recognition of English, and English only, as the nation’s common language – the official language of government.