Lawrence Kudlow, conservative economist and former host of CNBC’s The Kudlow Report, has changed his mind. Once a strong proponent of amnesty who said that “immigrants will replenish the labor force” that was decimated by Obama’s policies, Kudlow has now done a complete reversal of his position and has called for a freeze on ALL immigration. Here is his latest comments from National Review:
I know this is not my usual position. But this is a war. Therefore I have come to believe there should be no immigration or visa waivers until the U.S. adopts a completely new system to stop radical Islamic terrorists from entering the country. A wartime lockdown. And a big change in my thinking.
ISIS and related Islamic terrorists are already here. More are coming. We must stop them.
Until FBI director James Comey gives us the green light, I say seal the borders.
Read the entire article for yourself here. It’s worth it.
Kudlow did not join Donald Trump in calling for a ban of all Muslims entering the country. Instead, he called for a complete and total freeze of all new immigrants, refugees, and visas until we come up with a real solution for securing our borders and adopting a serious and effective screening process. On the prospect of this position offending some people, Kudlow had this to say:
But I say seal the borders. People hoping to relocate to the U.S. from Syria, Iraq, and anywhere in the Middle East, and people coming here from France, England, Sweden, and wherever will be upset, at least for a while. There may be some unfairness to this. But I don’t care. Wars breed unfairness, just as they breed collateral damage.
We may set back tourism. We may anger Saudi princes whose kids are in American schools. But so be it. We need a wartime footing if we are going to protect the American homeland.
This is a big deal. This is a prominent fiscal conservative that has been a strong supporter of so-called “immigration reform,” who has come to the realization that we cannot keep going like this. Dare we hope that other pro-amnesty supporters will see the light?
I certainly hope so.
10 comments
Kudlow gets it.
Hopefully, more will come to the same conclusion. If we seal off the borders, it will motivate all those people who want “immigration reform” to actually do something to reform immigration instead of dragging their feet ad naseum.
First of all, what Kudrow and Trump are calling for will never fly.
Instead, I would advocate a ban from our shores (except diplomats) on all citizens from the three worst Islamic countries in terms of their tolerating jihadi radicals and persecuting Christians and other non-Moslems. For example, Somalia, Yemen, and Iran. I would end student visas, do away with chain immigration, and end immigration quotas. I would give these nations three year period to turn things around, and if they made REAL progress, then I would resume giving out visas and immigration quotas, but only a fraction of what they had, so as to be able to thoroughly vet the flow. Three months later I would repeat this process going after the Naughty Nine: Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen. I think it would force countries such as Pakistan to ATTEMPT TO get their acts together. Naturally, we all know these countries as gong to stay rogue, given the nature of their populations, but it gives us a pretense to turning off the spigot of potentially dangerous immigrants while not PO-ing our European and Asian friends.
I don’t believe for a second that Obama will freeze immigtation. That’s not really the point for me. The point is that Kudlow was a die-hard supporter of amnesty, and he has completely turned around.
It’s terrible that it took the death of 14 Americans to make him realize it, but it is a sign to me that there might be a real shift in thinking on this issue.
My favorite unanswered question is what factors will make that position more universally held (esp. by readers and commenters of this blog)?
Stay the course for x months and y murders and/or z maimings? Seriously, what would it take? How many Americans need to be killed or hurt to address this seriously?
I could live with that, along with exiling non-citizen extended families of those committing acts of terror in this country.
mark, the New Zealand system is what the US should implement. You are not going to squat on New Zealand. You can only immigrate if you have a skill that they need.
Looks like the corporate lackeys at Bearing Drift are losing team members. I once saw Kudlow’s segment on Fox with Grover Norquist, a guy who gives Bearing Drift their corporate marching orders on open border immigration. Kudlow had Ann Coulter on too… She gutted the two on immigration who were left with going humida humida as she blew through their nonsensical baloney utopian nonsense about immigration, the empty shibboleths etc. I see why Norquist does what he does… corporations want cheap labor, and consummers. They don’t care the impact of immigration on any nation because nations don’t matter to them.
OK here is what immigration laws do– listen up GOP(e) dopes. They protect the nation against crime, terrorism, and disease. AND you morons… the laws protect the labor market. AND here is the real thing: It protects the taxpayer against having to pay for poverty. Immigration imports poverty guys. NOW NOW… yes poor immigrated in the 19th CENTURY (note we are over 100 years away from 1899) But see… there weren’t over two dozen entitlement programs back then to include Medicaid, a whole in the ground where you have to spend billions of dollars…
Kudlow finally sees the reality of immigration laws. That is a very good start for you GOP(e) cheap labor Chamber of Commerce types.
Good luck on getting those folks at BD to see the light. When it comes to immigration they have their heads so far up their rectums that when they sneeze it comes out as flatulence.
BD are like the Saddam spokesman who kept claiming victory — tools and shills trying to make discredited establishment positions somewhat palatable to dem-lite Republicans.