Noriega lays out immigration plan

AUSTIN (AP) -- Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega is proposing an immigration plan that calls for more border agents and crackdowns on employers who hire undocumented workers.

Meanwhile, he wants to turn illegal immigrants who are in America into taxpayers.

Noriega, who unveiled his plan in Amarillo on Wednesday, blasted Republican Sen. John Cornyn for supporting the U.S.-Mexico border fence. Noriega called the fence a gimmick and a 700-mile monument to Washington's failure, not a realistic solution.

Cornyn's campaign did not immediately respond to Noriega's attack.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)