Ask Barack Obama or John McCain what needs to be done in order to solve the country’s immigration problem and both men will answer first with, “Secure our borders.” The issue has been so highly publicized in this election that it’s easy to tune the candidates out once their rhetoric all starts to sound the same. However, if you listen past the initial drone of tightened borders, you will find that one candidate proposes the ideal solution to the issue of illegal immigration.

That candidate is Barack Obama.

To better understand the issue of immigration, we must first dismiss the notion that all immigrants are bad. We are, after all, a country founded on immigration. As a nation at war, we must acknowledge the support we receive from legal immigrants. Approximately 5 percent of our total active-duty force is made up of foreign-born men and women.

Of the legal immigrants serving in the U.S. military, 43 percent are not yet American citizens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden plan to give expedited procedures toward American citizenship to legal immigrants who have fought for us overseas.

On the issue of illegal immigration, the Obama-Biden plan supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology at places of entry to the United States. They also recognize the need to equip our Customs and Border Protection agents with superior technology and real-time intelligence.

In order to make illegal immigration less appealing, Obama will implement procedures necessary to crack down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants. To make this a reality, he has written a proposal with Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., to create an employment eligibility verification system.

As for the illegal immigrants that are already in the country, Barack Obama recognizes in his immigration plan that most immigrants come to this country “with the hope that hard work and sacrifice will secure a better life for their children.” For undocumented immigrants in good standing, Obama supports a system that will allow them to “pay a fine, learn English … and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.”

In precarious times, when many people look to the United States as a nation of opportunity, turning people away is not the answer. Barack Obama’s plan will secure our borders from illegal infiltration, while encouraging immigrants to enter the country in legal, documented ways.

— Jessica Opoien is a freshman in English and pre-journalism and mass communication from Marinette, Wis.