Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul has put border security and immigration reform at the top of his priority list for 2016:
“I think something has to be done. If you aren’t for doing any kind of immigration reform, you’re for another 10 (million) or 11 million people coming in unaccounted for,” the Republican said Thursday on KTAR, a Phoenix, Ariz., radio station.
Paul then paraphrased American economist Milton Friedman: “You can’t have open borders and a welfare state. We’ve kind of got both of right now — we have a completely open border and we’ve got this enormous welfare state.”
He added: “So you’ve got to stop one of them, and so right now what we really need to do is secure the border. We need to know who comes in, who leaves, we need to make sure none of them are terrorists and then we have to control the border, that’s part of it.”
Paul is also in favor of a work-visa program:
“I’m in favor of people coming across to work. … I had a farmer recently tell me … he has advertised for 30 years and never had one American apply for a job. So we do need migrant labor. There has to be some kind of compromise to come about on this,” he said.
Paul is currently polling fourth in a RealClearPolitics average of polls, within 10 points of leader Jeb Bush.
