"No, they do not have to "earn" it. Except one way. Obeying the laws of the nation they want to become citizens in. After all, the ones you describe - when caught, are put in jail for their crimes."

I say we round em up and use em for target practice, dress em in Terrorist outfits put them in mock up middle eastern villages and have our recruits get real time training, killing them.. solves the immigration problem, trains our military. Damn I am a genius!!

""American" denotes nothing more than the nation of which one is a citizen and is in no way a qualitative term."

So when people call each other unamerican, they are questioning the other person's citizenship status?

"QUESTION: With regards to illegal and legal immigration, in your opinion, what does it mean to be an American? What are the tangible and intangible attributes of an American?

VAUGHN: Congressman Tancredo?

TANCREDO: It means, number one, cut from the past. If you come here as an immigrant, great, welcome. If you come here legally, welcome. It means you've cut your ties with the past, familial, especially political ties with the country from which you came.

But let's be serious about this, you guys. We can talk about all the immigration reform we want and what it's got to get down to is this: Are we ready for a time-out? Are we actually ready to say, enough is enough, we have to stop all legal immigration except for people coming into this country as family members, immediate family members, and/or refugees.

Are we willing to actually say that and say, enough is -- we have got to actually begin the process of assimilating people who have come in this great wave of immigration.

The process of assimilation is not going on. And how long -- how long will it take us -- for us to catch up with the millions of people who have come here, both legally and illegally, and assimilate them? I'll tell you this: It will take this long: Until we no longer have to press one for English and two for any other language.

(APPLAUSE)

BLITZER: I promised, Governor Huckabee, you'd have a chance to weigh in on this immigration issue. Do you agree with Congressman Tancredo that the U.S. should effectively end most legal immigration into the country?

HUCKABEE: No, I disagree with that.

I think that there are a number of people that we should welcome into this country; certainly engineers and doctors and scientists that we may need legally coming here.

What we need to do is to have a border that is sealed and the same kind of process that we have to go through if we go into a stadium: We go in one at a time and we have a ticket.

That's the only thing I think Americans really are asking us for, is a sane, sensible system that's based on the idea that if you come here, that you come here through the same process that we would be expected to go through if we went to another country, which is not happening today.

BLITZER: Mayor Giuliani, are you comfortable with what Congressman Tancredo says about immigration to this country?

GIULIANI: No. I'm very uncomfortable with it. I mean, the reality is, it's one thing to be debating illegal immigration. It's a very complex subject. I think we've had a very good debate about it. And I think the bill needs to be fixed in the way that I've indicated.

But we shouldn't be having a debate about legal immigration.

Abraham Lincoln defined what an American is better than I'm going to be able to do it or Congressman Tancredo or anyone on this stage. Abraham Lincoln, who fought the Know-Nothing movement, said, "Being an American is not whether you came over on the Mayflower or you came here yesterday.

"How much do you believe in freedom? How much do you believe in freedom of religion? How much do you believe in freedom for women? How much do you believe in the right to vote? How much do you believe in the rule of law?

"The person who believes in that the most is the best American. And the person who doesn't isn't an American."

BLITZER: Thank you.

GIULIANI: And that's Abraham Lincoln's words.

We should always be open to legal immigration. It reforms us. It makes us better. It brings us people who want to make a better live for themselves...

BLITZER: Thank you.

GIULIANI: ... and their families. If we lose that, we lose the genius that has made America what it is.

(APPLAUSE)

BLITZER: I'm going to go back to Jennifer in a second, but I want Senator McCain to respond as well.

When you hear what Congressman Tancredo says, what goes through your mind?

MCCAIN: It's beyond my realm of thinking.

Look, America is a land of opportunity. The question was just asked, what is it to be an American? It's to share a common goal that all of us -- a principle -- are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.

That means we go as far as our ambition will take us. That means we have a better life for ourselves and our children. And the lady that holds her lamp beside the golden door is still the ideal and the dream.

Of course it has to be legal. Of course that it has to be regulated. And 18 months, by the way, will go by while we fix the border before we do anything else on this issue.

But America is still the land of opportunity, and it is a beacon of hope and liberty and, as Ronald Reagan said, a shining city on the hill.

BLITZER: Thank you.

MCCAIN: And we're not going to erect barriers and fences.

BLITZER: Thank you, Senator."

So when people call each other unamerican, they are questioning the other person's citizenship status?

I can contribute nothing to the country, and commit the most horrendous crimes imaginable and still be favored with a title we want to say other people pave to earn, regardless of their benefit to us.

Odd kind of logic.