Reagan’s Legacy, Immigration Division

Responding to an attempt, in an article in the Wall Street Journal, by a group of open border advocates desiring to blur the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants while claiming the mantle of President Reagan for their views, another group of conservative leaders wrote a rebuttal slated to appear in the WSJ on Tuesday, February 17. "We agree fully with President Reagan's famous metaphor of the 'shining city on a hill.' It is a magnificent vision which reaffirms deep American values. Yet it is unfortunate that the authors of the 'Statement' did not read Reagan's words more carefully. Reagan said that 'the doors' of this city must remain open. He did not say that people are welcome to bypass the doors and climb the walls," says the letter, signed by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.), Michael Reagan, Bay Buchanan, Victor Davis Hanson, David Keene, Michelle Malkin, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.), Phyllis Schlafly, and Paul Weyrich. On February 6, the Journal published a so-called "Conservative Statement of Principles on Immigration" that endorsed President Bush's proposed amnesty for illegal aliens and his plan to flood this country with an unlimited number of foreign guest workers. "The President has shown courage by calling on Congress to place reality over rhetoric and recognize that those already working here outside the law are unlikely to leave. Congress can fulfill its role by establishing sufficient increases in legal immigration and paths to permanent residence to enable more workers to stay, assimilate, and become part of America," the authors wrote. The signers were Stuart Anderson, Jeff Bell, Linda Chavez, Larry Cirignano, Cesar V. Conda, Francis Fukuyama, Richard Gilder, Newt Gingrich, Ed Goeas, Tamar Jacoby, Jack Kemp, Steve Moore, Grover Norquist, Richard W. Rahn, and Malcolm Wallop.