The Democratic nominee for Kentucky’s Second Congressional District thinks the U.S. needs to consider offering amnesty to certain people who are living in the country without documentation.
Hank Linderman said U.S. policymakers have to consider a wide range of solutions in dealing with the country’s estimated 12 million unauthorized immigrants.
“President Reagan signed a bill in 1986 to allow undocumented people that were in the United States to become citizens, and it was called the ‘Reagan Amnesty of 1986.’ So one of things I’ll be proposing very soon is amnesty for folks who have been in the United States since July 4, 2018.”
Linderman said he chose that date because it’s the nation’s Independence Day, and because of the Trump Administration’s recent “zero tolerance” immigration policy. That policy led to the separation of an estimated 3,000 children from their parents at the southern border with Mexico. The Trump administration has beenscrambling to reunitethose cihldren with their families.
Linderman says criminals or anyone who is a threat to national security shouldn’t be eligible for an amnesty program.
“The guidelines are that you have to prove you’re not a criminal. You have to prove you can speak rudimentary English, and have some basic idea of how our government works.”
Linderman says such a program would allow hard-working immigrants who are living in the shadows to become citizens, pay taxes, and live without fear of deportation.
Linderman is an independent musician and audio engineer who lives in Grayson County. He’s challenging Republican Congressman Brett Guthrieof Warren County.
Kentucky’s Second Congressional District includes Bardstown, Bowling Green, Danville, Elizabethtown, and Owensboro.
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