Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., may have studiously avoided using the word “citizenship” in his speech to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, but granting amnesty to the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the country today is exactly the policy end game he is supporting. BuzzFeed‘s John Stanton reports, “When asked if his plan granting work visas to the 11 million undocumented workers in the country would mean they could, eventually, become citizens, Paul said yes.”
Paul, like The National Council of La Raza, would never call his plan amnesty, but that is exactly what it is. Unlike the tens of millions of people worldwide who would like to become U.S. citizens, but are not in the country today, Paul would allow those illegally in the country now to both stay here and apply for citizenship. That is a clear ongoing violation of the rule of law.
Worse, unlike the Gang of Ocho amnesty plan endorsed by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Paul would force Republicans to play the role border-security-bad-guys every year. The Washington Examiner‘s Byron York reports, “Under his proposal, the border would have to be verified secure by some government agency and then — this is a key step for Paul — voted on by Congress on a yearly basis.”
You don’t have to be a genius to figure out how this would turn out. Every year a majority of Republicans would vote to say the border was not secure and those who came to the country illegally should not continue down the path to citizenship. And every year every Democrat and a minority of Republicans would vote the opposite, allowing those who came illegally to advance down that path… until of course they are all sworn in as Democratic voters.
Paul’s plan would do nothing to endear the Republican party to immigrant communities, would do nothing to secure the border, and would only incentivize new waves of illegal immigrants to come to the U.S. and wait for their special, one-time-only “path to citizenship.”
