Reagan and Immigration
August 8, 2011
What were Ronald Reagan's immigration views? They were certainly
more open-minded and welcoming than those of most Republicans
today< according to Let Them In - The Case For Open Borders,
by Jason L. Riley (Gotham Books 2008).
Reagan gave a speech in 1952, essentially calling for open
borders, saying;
...any person with the courage, with the desire to tear
up their roots, to strive for freedom, to attempt and dare to
live in a strange land and foreign place, to travel halfway across
the world was welcome here.
And what did he have to say about illegal aliens and the supposed
threats from them? To start with, in 1977 Reagan refuted the
idea that illegal aliens steal jobs, saying;
Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the
illegal alien invasion, or are those illegal tourists doing work
our own people won't do? One thing is certain in a hungry world:
No regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops
rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters.
In 1989 Reagan, referring to the United States as a "shining
city on a hill," said it is;
A city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity,
and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the
doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get
here.
Some republicans seem to forget that Reagan supported amnesty
for illegal aliens. His own words, once again;
We have consistently supported a legalization program which
is both generous to the alien and to the countless thousands
of people throughout the world who seek legally to come to America.
Reagan was not very much like today's tea-partiers, who use
immigrants a scapegoats and to generate fear for political purposes.
Reagan was pro-immigration, and had no problem looking at "illegal"
aliens as what they are: people looking for a better life. |
