Reagan Embraced Free Trade and Immigration

[one...two...tree 2,762]

by Daniel Griswold

In the many eulogies to Ronald Reagan since his passing, virtually all acknowledge his role in defeating Soviet communism and reviving America's self-confidence. But another aspect of Reagan's record that should not be forgotten was his commitment to keeping America open to trade and immigration.

Reagan's vision of an America open to commerce and peaceful, hardworking immigrants contradicts the anti-trade and anti-immigration views espoused by Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, and many others who claim to speak for the conservative causes Reagan largely defined.

Reagan's heart and head were clearly on the side of free trade. While president, he declared in 1986: "Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of free and open markets. I recognize ... the inescapable conclusion that all of history has taught: The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace among nations."

It was the Reagan administration that launched the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations in 1986 that lowered global tariffs and created the World Trade Organization. It was his administration that won approval of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1988. That agreement soon expanded to include Mexico in what became the North American Free Trade Agreement, realizing a vision that Reagan first articulated in the 1980 campaign. It was Reagan who vetoed protectionist textile quota bills in 1985 and 1988.

During Reagan's eight years in office, Americans eagerly expanded their engagement in the global economy. In 1980, the year before Reagan became president, Americans spent a total of $334 billion on imported goods and services and payments on foreign investment in the United States. By 1988, his last year in office, American spending in the global economy had nearly doubled, to $663 billion. If Reagan was a "protectionist," it had no discernable effect on the ability of Americans to spend freely in the global marketplace. Fittingly, one of the major federal buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue is named the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

Like most post-war presidents, Reagan championed free trade while selectively deviating from it. Critics of trade note correctly that Reagan negotiated "voluntary" import quotas for steel and Japanese cars and imposed Section 201 tariffs on imported motorcycles to protect Harley-Davidson. All true. But those were the exceptions and not the rule. They were tactical retreats designed to defuse rising protectionists pressures in Congress.

Reagan's words and deeds regarding immigration were equally expansive. At a ceremony at Ellis Island in 1982, he spoke movingly of immigrants who "possessed a determination that with hard work and freedom, they would live a better life and their children even more so." As with trade, Reagan's record on immigration was mixed. He signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which included stepped up border enforcement and sanctions against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. But that legislation also legalized 2.8 million undocumented workers. More immigrants entered the United States legally under President Reagan's watch than under any previous U.S. president since Teddy Roosevelt.

Like President George W. Bush today, Reagan had the good sense and compassion to see illegal immigrants not as criminals but as human beings striving to build better lives through honest work. In a radio address in 1977, he noted that apples were rotting on trees in New England because no Americans were willing to pick them. "It makes one wonder about the illegal alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do?" Reagan asked. "One thing is certain in this hungry world; no regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters."

In his farewell address to the nation in January 1989, Reagan beautifully wove his view of free trade and immigration into his vision of a free society: "I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and heart to get here."

Compare Reagan's hopeful, expansive, and inclusive view of America with the dour, crabbed, and exclusive view that characterizes certain conservatives who would claim his mantle. Their view of the world could not be more alien to the spirit of Ronald Reagan.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2705

[mawilson 2,133]

Reagan was an idiot, and if he were alive today, he would be called a socialist by the likes of Sarah Palin.

[Heracles 417]

Regan = early 80's.

Present = 2010

Totally different ball game back them.

[IndigoSkies 168]

If the entire world stopped doing business with America and if all the immigrants left this country, what would happen? Would the racist white ilks like Lou Dobbs dance in happiness?

[alienlovechild 75]

Regan = early 80's.

Present = 2010

Totally different ball game back them.

Right idea but a little off on the years.

No comparison possible as Reagan only saw the beginning of mass illegal Mexican immigration starting in 1982. He attempted use amnesty as solution in 1986 and was out of office in January 1989.

Reagan was pro-free trade but during his time in office, China was not a major exporter known to ignoring patent rights and dumping goods aboard anywhere near today's levels.

[Kazura 0]

what exactly is the point of the writer? some people just enjoy talking about the past. they are driven by wishful thinking which isn't what the world needs right now

[IndigoSkies 168]

To those who wish for free trade and wholesome immigration policy, can you shut up for a while. Please, for like 10 years. Let them racist snobs go into a protectionist mode for 10 years and stop immigration for that long. See what happens. If evrything is good, eveyone's good. If things go horribly wrong, would the racist please shut up and never ever say a single thing about how to run a country?

Is that a deal?

[peejay 327]

To those who wish for free trade and wholesome immigration policy, can you shut up for a while. Please, for like 10 years. Let them racist snobs go into a protectionist mode for 10 years and stop immigration for that long. See what happens. If evrything is good, eveyone's good. If things go horribly wrong, would the racist please shut up and never ever say a single thing about how to run a country?

Is that a deal?

Racist? Racist snobs? Shut up?

What is your point of your babblings?

[IndigoSkies 168]

Racist? Racist snobs? Shut up?

What is your point of your babblings?

My point is to do an experiment. Let the Right run the country however they will for 10 years. See what happens. If everything turns out good, great. If things go wrong, then the Right must shut up. Deal?

[mawilson 2,133]

My point is to do an experiment. Let the Right run the country however they will for 10 years. See what happens. If everything turns out good, great. If things go wrong, then the Right must shut up. Deal?

"The Right"? Who's that, Reagan or G W Bush, both of whom embraced free trade and immigration?

[peejay 327]

My point is to do an experiment. Let the Right run the country however they will for 10 years. See what happens. If everything turns out good, great. If things go wrong, then the Right must shut up. Deal?

The only problem with your "experiment" is that the world (and the USA) ain't some sort of game show or Hollywood fantasy movie. Deal? Who could possibly be in charge of making this deal? Voters? Corporations? Lobbyists? Enquiring minds want to know.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Is someone here against immigration?

If the entire world stopped doing business with America and if all the immigrants left this country, what would happen? Would the racist white ilks like Lou Dobbs dance in happiness?

Lou Dobbs isn't a racist. Open borders supporters are.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

To those who wish for free trade and wholesome immigration policy, can you shut up for a while. Please, for like 10 years. Let them racist snobs go into a protectionist mode for 10 years and stop immigration for that long. See what happens. If evrything is good, eveyone's good. If things go horribly wrong, would the racist please shut up and never ever say a single thing about how to run a country?

Is that a deal?

Do you even know the difference between LEGAL and ILLEGAL immigration?

Quit playing the race card. It so bores me.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Do you even know the difference between LEGAL and ILLEGAL immigration?

Reagan understood the difference:

"It makes one wonder about the illegal alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do?" Reagan asked. "One thing is certain in this hungry world; no regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters."

[evli1966 88]

Buscador words from 33 years ago very different America back then ...very!

"It makes one wonder about the illegal alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do?" Reagan asked. "One thing is certain in this hungry world; no regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters."

I agree sort of with Reagan except that in the 70's and 80's people duped the system and USC were lazy and stole from the system.

I remember people recieving foodstamps, medical card, free school expenses and lunches, unemployment checks and working a full time job that put them over the poverty level.

Yes a family could have 2 parents working under their married name, the wife could under her maiden name recieve unemplyment checks and if she had been previously married with children she could use that name to gain foodstamps and medical cards.

{I witnessed the large car era were familys lived in large homes and had very upper middle class lifestyles and still did the above}

My single mother of 5 worked 3 jobs 8a-12pm Holiday inn cafe 5p-10pm thur-sat holidy inn Lounge, 11p-7a convenient store clerk and now lives on SS only.

So we built a society of that time due to limited monitoring or control into society of laziness and theft.

In case you are unaware it is much more difficult do now with out identitiy theft, and you will still get caught

What Reagan saw was approx 3 million illegals crossing over to do jobs those lazy SOB USC wouldn't do.

The intentions of Reagan Failed!!

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/110686a.htm

please note:

Our objective is only to establish a reasonable, fair, orderly, and secure system of immigration into this country and not to discriminate in any way against particular nations or people.

Many of Reagans people now state he would have acted differnetly knowing that after giving Amnesty to 2.8 million that in a little more than 2 decades there would be 12million more illegal aliens

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18399

http://www.americanprinciplesproject.org/topics/miscellaneous/965-on-immigration-what-would-reagan-say.html

note both articles state he knew the borders needed secured first and foremost his and other politicians on both sides of the political spectrum made this law and erred in it; it only set a precedence that many illegal aliens saw as a possible loop hole to gain legal status.

Also note the as stated in their opinions and their knowledge of the president he would not make this make this mistake again.

Also in regards to his vision of "Winthrop's City upon a hill" please post all his remarks or at list what his statements were in regards to this.

Reagan’s statements about freedom indicate that he meditated on these words and concluded that all men the world over were created with these rights, and were free to demand respect for them from their governments. That’s why he fought the scourge of communism so fiercely. But he also must have recognized that not all governments would respect each person’s God-given rights, and that people so oppressed needed the hope of a new home.

Such was Reagan’s idea of Winthrop’s city upon a hill. In his Farewell Address, Reagan observed that:

“…in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it and see it still.”

Having open doors to and ports to all people is what we have but we require them to come here legally; by that it is we the people of the USA have empowered our selected officials to create laws to govern our nation by.

further more to say I am or someone else is a racist because we oppose illegal immigration is ludicris and is typically an arguement of someone that has no valid point to their arguements. (this is not directed at you buscador)