There are very few nice things I can say about the anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA. But they do the pro-immigrant community a favor with their detailed ratings of members of Congress. And now they have done the same on presidential candidates for next November's election. Just flip the scores and you can tell which candidates pro-immigrant folks should consider supporting. The candidates are graded generally on their positions on legalization of unauthorized immigrants, immigration enforcement and ending legal
immigration (which includes opposing non-immigrant visas like the H-1B as well as family and employment-based green cards). They are then graded on more specific issues in each category.

The long and short of it is that the Democrats all did poorly with the antis (which means they would score an "A" from us). The Republicans generally scored high and The only GOP candidates that did poorly with the antis on all measures is John McCain.

I received a couple of negative comments on a post the other day called "Sleeping Giant" discussing how the anti-immigration rhetoric being heard from many GOP candidates would come back to haunt that party as Hispanic voters exacted retribution at the polls. Some suggested that the GOP is only anti-ILLEGAL-immigration. But the NumbersUSA ratings tell a different story. So to the legal immigration advocates who somehow think that if they abandon the advocates for unauthorized immigrants, I ask that you take a look at the ratings of GOP candidates on legal immigration. Only three of the eight GOP candidates scored poorly with the antis on legal immigration - McCain, Romney and Guiliani. All seven Democrats scored poorly with the antis on the legal immigration question.

I'm not simply being partisan. If John McCain got his party's nomination, I would be very pleased to encourage his candidacy. I'd probably also have kind things to say about Mayor Guiliani if only because his record on immigration as mayor was commendable. But in general, every Democratic candidate can boast a pro-immigration record as strong as the strongest Republican.