Ron Paul On Immigration — The Good, The Bad, And The Idiosyncratic

By Marcus Epstein

01/22/2008

Ron Paul’s presidential campaign has exceeded all expectations. The man who at first was seen as a fringe libertarian candidate has become a household name with hundreds of thousands of loyal supporters. Many patriotic immigration reformers who share his America First stance on sovereignty and foreign affairs are attracted to his campaign. But some of these people assume that his views on immigration are near identical to that of Tom Tancredo or Pat Buchanan. This is simply not the case.

The good news first: Unlike many libertarians, Ron Paul does not support open borders. As he told VDARE.COM last summer, "I believe in national sovereignty". Paul understands that globalism is one the biggest threats to liberty. He also recognizes the relationship between mass immigration and the welfare state.

But at the same time, Paul says he supports the free exchange of labor, whatever that means, and wants as little government involvement as possible.

Just as with all the other candidates, we need to take a serious and thorough look at Paul’s immigration proposals.

Let’s start with where he’s right:




But there are many areas where Paul’s positions are not clear, even problematic:

Personally, I don’t think restrictionists should hold these stands against Paul. After all, VDARE.COM’s Bryanna Bevens also thought REAL ID was a blunt instrument. It is perfectly possible to deal with the immigration problem without relying on Big Brother. With cities, states, and localities taking the lead on real immigration reform, it is also in our interest to keep the federal government and courts from interfering with state legislation.


It would be ideal if Paul would come around to oppose mass immigration in principle and practice. But I wish Paul would at least say what our legal immigration levels should be in the immediate future.




As this all demonstrates, Paul is a good but still mixed bag on immigration — especially legal immigration. The fundamental problem: he tends to see immigration as a purely economic issue. His idea that the welfare state is the key problem is overly simplistic and unrealistic. Robert Rector at the Heritage Foundation has shown that even if all means tested welfare, social services, and all direct transfer payments were abolished, low skilled immigrants would still be a fiscal drain — and that’s assuming that they would pay the same amount in taxes that they do now. [Spinning the Real Costs of Illegals, June 28, 2007]

Immigrants are indeed attracted to the US for economic reasons. But even without welfare, we still have a much higher standard of living than most of the world. Immigrants will continue to flood here whether or not they have welfare — the biggest magnet is not welfare, but jobs. High minimum wages, union laws, and other policies that restrict low wage workers discourage immigration. This does not mean we need to adopt these policies, but it does mean that free markets alone will not solve the problem. Either by commission or omission, Americans still must choose who to admit into their national community.

And there many other reasons why libertarian constitutionalists should oppose mass immigration:





Ron Paul has said honestly that immigration is an issue that he still struggles with. If he struggles with some of these ideas, he might gravitate closer towards our point of view. But this will not happen if all his patriotic immigration reform supporters give him a free pass.

Meanwhile, Paul’s pusillanimity on the immigration/ national sovereignty issue is costing him dear.

Marcus Epstein [send him mail] is the founder of the Robert A Taft Club and the executive director of the The American Cause and Team America PAC. A selection of his articles can be seen here. The views he expresses are his own.

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