On May 3, 2007, the Republican presidential candidates gathered at the Reagan Library for a television debate (discussion) aired on MSNBC. Here is the candidates' responses to questions related to immigration, from NYTimes' transcript.

For the full transcript, go here

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McCain: Tancredo as head of INS?
Hunter: Let's build that border fence
Tancredo: No more obfuscating on amnesty
McCain supports "comprehensive" approach
Candidates on tamper-proof ID for immigrants
Hunter: Govt poor at securing borders
Tancredo: Pardon Ramos/Compean

McCain: Tancredo as head of INS?

MR. VANDERHEI: Thanks, Chris.

Senator McCain, Sarah (sp) from Arlington, Virginia, wants to know if you would comfortable with Tom Tancredo, a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, as head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. (Laughter.)

MR./SEN./REP. : I know what Tom Tancredo -- (off mike). (Laughter.)

SEN. MCCAIN: In a word, no. (Laughter.)

Hunter: Let's build that border fence

MR. HARRIS: Gentlemen, let’s talk a bit about the future of your party. Congressman Hunter, Governor Schwarzenegger -- who is here tonight -- has won the state twice by downplaying partisanship and taking centrist positions on the environment, immigration, abortion. Is that the way to win for Republicans?

REP. HUNTER: You know, it’s a way to win, but we need to win the right way. And you know, about a hundred miles south of here is the -- in my town of San Diego we built the border fence. When we built that fence, we had a border out of control, and we built that fence. And it’s a double fence, it’s not that little straggly fence you see on CNN with everybody getting over it.

We had massive murders on the border, massive illegal immigration, massive importation of drugs. I built that border fence. We brought down the smuggling of people and narcotics by more than 90 percent.

I think that there’s an implication in your immigration statement that the Hispanic community of California wants to have a secure border. And I wrote that law that extends the San Diego fence for 854 miles, across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, that the president signed in October.

One way to bring down crime in the state of California and every state in the union is to have an enforceable border.

That means let’s build that border fence. When people want to come into this country, let’s ask them to knock on the front door.

Tancredo: No more obfuscating on amnesty

MR. VANDEHEI: Congressman Tancredo, David Kim (sp) from here in California wants to know, beside yourself, who do you think should be the Republican nominee for president of the United States, and why?

REP. TANCREDO: Well, of course, if I thought there should be another one, I wouldn’t be here. I think that I serve the purpose. I think that we -- good men all here, don’t get me wrong. But I am telling you this; that there are issues that I believe have not been addressed tonight, not in full, and I believe that they do separate us, and I certainly believe the issue of immigration and immigration reform and what’s going to happen to this country unless we deal with this forthrightly.

No more platitudes. No more obfuscating with using words like, "Well, I am not for amnesty but I’m for letting them stay." That kind of stuff has got to be taken away from the political debate, as far as I’m concerned, so people can understand exactly who is where on this incredibly important issue.

And when they see that, I think, frankly, I’m --

McCain supports "comprehensive" approach

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay, time.

Anyone have a follow-up with that? Anyone with disagree with the strong anti-illegal immigration position? Take a strong view? Senator McCain.

SEN. MCCAIN: Well, I’m happy to say that we’ve been working very hard for a couple of months with Democrats and Republicans, led by the president and his Cabinet, to come up with a comprehensive solution and resolution of this terrible problem.

One thing we would all agree on: the status quo is not acceptable. We have to secure our borders, but we also need a temporary worker program, and we have to dispose of the issue of 12 million people who are in this country illegally.

This issue is a(n) important and compelling one, and it begins with national security. But we also need to address it comprehensively, and I’m proud to work with the president of the United States on this issue.

Candidates on tamper-proof ID for immigrants

I want to start with Mayor Giuliani, something you’ve come out for, I believe. I want you to explain it and defend it: a national tamper-proof ID card.

MR. GIULIANI: Yeah, I think that’s critical to having immigration security. Every single person in this country who comes in from a foreign country should be identified, should be in a database. It should be a tamper-proof card.

I probably have the most experience in dealing with security. I had to take a city that was -- had an outlandish amount of crime and reduce it.

So the very, very best way to sensibly create security is to have a tamper-proof card, a database. And then kind of back up from that, well how do we get there? That would allow for a fence, a technological fence, Border Patrol. Having people come forward, people who are paying taxes -- or who want to pay taxes --

MR. MATTHEWS: That’s time.

MR. GIULIANI: -- God bless them, let them pay taxes.

MR. MATTHEWS: Governor Romney, I think -- are you with him on that, a tamper-proof ID card?

MR. ROMNEY: Absolutely. I had occasion, as you know, following the great disaster on 9/11 to help organize the Olympic Winter Games, bring people from all over the world together in Salt Lake City, organize the first national special security event following that tragedy, and brought together law enforcement from all over the country, coordinated them in a way that we could communicate with each other.

There’s no question as we deal with the issue of immigration, having a national special card that indicates a person’s name, date -- birth date, biographic information, and an indication of their work status will allow us to know who’s here legally, who’s not, who can work and who cannot.

MR. MATTHEWS: Is someone against this on libertarian grounds, the idea of a national ID card?

Senator Brownback.

SEN. BROWNBACK: I don’t think this is the way to go, and I don’t think we need to go this way. And I’ve been serving on Judiciary Committee and working on these immigration issues. What we need to do is secure the border with a fence. And then interior-wise, we need to make sure that that Social Security number means something. We already have a Social Security number.

MR. MATTHEWS: How is that different than a national ID card if it works?

SEN. BROWNBACK: Because we don’t need a new system and we don’t need a new ID card.

(Cross talk.)

MR. MATTHEWS: Senator McCain, are you for a national tamper- proof ID card?

SEN. MCCAIN: That’s one of the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. And absolutely, if someone wants to work, they have to have a document that’s tamper proof.

And any employer who employs someone else with any other document, like a bogus Social Security card or birth certificate, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

MR. MATTHEWS: Dr. Paul. Dr. Paul.

REP. PAUL: I am absolutely opposed to a national ID card. This is a total contradiction of what a free society is all about. The purpose of government is to protect the secrecy and the privacy of all individuals, not the secrecy of government. We don’t need a national ID card.

MR. MATTHEWS: Mr. Tancredo, do you agree with the need of a national tamper-proof ID card?

REP. TANCREDO: We do not need a national ID -- I do not think we need a national ID card, much for the reasons that Dr. Paul said. We absolutely need a verifiable Social Security card. They are two separate things. I believe that we can accomplish the former without jeopardizing individual liberties --

MR. MATTHEWS: But you say, legally you have to who you say you are.

REP. TANCREDO: Pardon me?

MR. MATTHEWS: You have to be the person on that card.

MR. TANCREDO: That is absolutely what I’m saying. It’s got to be verifiable. Absolutely.

Hunter: Govt poor at securing borders

MR. VANDEHEI: Congressman Hunter, Ryan from Los Angeles wants you to name one thing that the federal government does really well and one thing that it does poorly.

REP. HUNTER: Yeah. Really well: precision munitions on Mr. Zarqawi’s safe house. (Laughter.)

Really poorly: secure the border. Right now the border is 2,000 miles of a very porous area where hundreds of thousands of people come across on an annual basis. And last year we had 155,000 folks who came across from Mexico who were from other countries in the world -- some from Communist China, some from Iran, some from Korea. We have to secure the border. That’s the biggest failure of the federal government.

Tancredo: Pardon Ramos/Compean

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay. Does anybody want to pardon him? I want to save time here. Does any gentleman want to raise his hand and say pardon him?

REP. TANCREDO: Well, yeah. Yeah.

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay, Congressman Tancredo wants to pardon him.

REP. TANCREDO: I would say pardon him, but right after or before you pardon Ramos and Compean, two people who are presently serving in -- prison time for actually doing their job on the border.