What I would do on comprehensive immigration reform is this: I would require those who are here illegally to sort of raise their hand and come forward and say, ‘we broke the law.’ By admitting that you’re breaking the law, you’re going to have that as a criminal violation, as a legal violation, and you’re going to have to pay a penalty and it;’s going to be a significant penalty that you will pay over a period of time. Whether it’s a fine or an escalated tax rate, you’re going to have to pay that. We would take that money that’s being paid by those who have come here unlawfully, and we would use it to increase border security. … I would take these fines and do even more border security.
However, Kaine 2012 comments on immigration do suggest a tougher line on immigration than what he outlined at this week’s presidential debate:
Immigration. There’s two plans on the table. Hillary and I believe in comprehensive immigration reform. Donald Trump believes in deportation nation. You’ve got to pick your choice. Hillary and I want a bipartisan reform that will put keeping families together as the top goal, second, that will help focus enforcement efforts on those who are violent, third, that will do more border control, and, fourth, that will provide a path to citizenship for those who work hard, pay taxes, play by the rules, and take criminal background record checks. That’s our proposal. Donald Trump proposes to deport 16 million people, 11 million who are here without documents. And both Donald Trump and Mike Pence want to get rid of birthright citizenship. So if you’re born here, but your parents don’t have documents, they want to eliminate that. That’s another 4.5 million people.
Instead of only prioritizing efforts to deal with violent immigrants, Kaine said 2012 that all immigrants should be somehow identified and charged with a criminal violation. And there’s a minor commonality with the Republican ticket’s proposal—if Trump has famously said he’d make Mexico pay for a border wall, Kaine in 2012 seems to be saying he wants America’s illegal immigrants to a least pay for upkeep of our existing border fences.
