In this post about Ron Paul's Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom,
I'll write about Ron Paul's views on illegal immigration. Essentially,
Paul is somewhere between amnesty, on the one hand, and building a wall
to keep out illegal immigrants, on the other hand. Some of his
policies are hard-line, and some of them are compassionate towards
illegal immigrants.
Let's start with the hard-line positions. Ron
Paul supports abolishing the welfare state, and he wants to "Stop all
federal mandates on the states to provide free education and medical
care for illegal immigrants" (page 155). He is for more border guards,
allowing private landowners to keep illegals off of their own land, and
permitting states to enforce immigration law. He does not favor
granting children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S. automatic
citizenship. He opposes amnesty, and he thinks that legal and illegal
immigrants who "incite violence or commit crimes of violence should be
prosecuted under the law and lose their right to stay in the country"
(page 156). He favors the police being allowed to research the
citizenship of a person who is "caught participating in a crime" (pages
156-157).
Some of this should be qualified. First, while
Paul is against amnesty, he's not necessarily for deporting every
illegal immigrant, for he supports providing a green card with an
asterisk. Second, in terms of the police researching the
citizenship of illegal immigrants, Paul distinguishes what he supports
from "stopping anyone anytime and demanding the individual present
documentation of a legal status" (page 157). But does Paul, a believer
in states' rights, think that state authorities should be permitted to
stop anyone at anytime?
Now let's proceed to Ron Paul's policies
that are compassionate towards illegal immigrants. Paul supports a
guest-worker program. He wants a strong U.S. economy in which
citizens and foreigners can participate, and he believes that getting
rid of the Federal Reserve's inflationary policies will keep wages
high. Paul does not support punishing businesses for hiring illegal
immigrants, nor does he agree with punishing Catholic churches for
providing them with sanctuary.
I should also note that
Ron Paul supports legalizing drugs and believes that the drug war and
the problem of illegal immigration are connected.
In terms of any
questions that I have, there is one. Suppose there is an illegal
immigrant who is allowed to stay in the U.S. and to work, and his wages
are high now that the Fed's inflationary policies are gone. If his
family can be legally excluded from U.S. public schools and medical
care, is that much of a deal for him or his family? At the same time,
Paul appears to be for many things being private-sector anyway, so
perhaps Paul would say that private schools and doctors under his system
would be able (if they chose) to provide services to illegal immigrants
and their families.