America’s Independent Party Presidential Candidate Alan Keyes does not favor legalization of illegals in any form. Here is his view on
the matter: “Our country’s immigration policy should encourage legal immigration to be maintained, and illegal immigration to be curtailed. The policy should be enforced through existing laws.

It’s a travesty when those who have abided by the law and become citizens through the proper means are considered no different than those who have not. If we start extending all the privileges of life and citizenship to people who are not citizens and who are not here legally, then we’re breaking down our own laws.

And in breaking down those laws, we’re creating a situation that will eventually damage our economy, damage our ability to deliver social services, damage our ability to maintain schools on an equitable basis, and so forth. It doesn’t make sense.

That’s why I believe that we have to enforce our immigration laws, and that we shouldn’t be putting laws on the books that will extend to non-citizens the privileges of citizenship, because I think you are actually inviting people to violate the law when you’re doing that, you’re decreasing the respect for the law.

Let me stress that I believe that immigration in the true sense is good for America. This would mean policies aimed at assuring that, by and large, the people who come to America come with the intention of becoming full and responsible citizens of the republic. It also means discouraging any who think they have the right to establish foreign enclaves in our midst, so to speak, in order to gain economic advantages for themselves without fully committing to help us build this free society.

Immigration, yes; colonization, no.

The first prerequisite, therefore, of any effective immigration policy is to regain full control of the borders of the United States. Proposed legislation in Congress falls far short of what is needed to achieve this goal. Until our political leaders put in place the tools and forces needed to control our borders, responsible and moral Americans should oppose any measures that would signal our acceptance of the de facto colonization of our country.

President Bush’s guest-worker proposal and the Senate’s amnesty bill are such measures. They may serve short-sighted business interests intent on cheapening the cost of labor in our economy, and they may serve the corrupt interests of Mexican and other foreign elites seeking to relieve the pressure created by their own policies of greedy exploitation, but they do not serve the common good. Serving the common good demands policies that give preference in immigration not just to workers seeking jobs and money, but to those who seek liberty and the responsibilities of citizenship.

Let me add that it is incongruous that in the midst of the struggle we are now waging against the international terror network–a struggle that has taken various forms, including, we are told, the effort we are making on behalf of self-government and liberty in Iraq–I think it’s incongruous that we should be putting forth such a maximal effort of sending our men and women over there to risk their lives and spill their blood, and meanwhile we are being told that we don’t have the right to defend the integrity of the identity and the borders and the self-government of our own people.

You can’t have freedom in principle if you won’t defend it in fact! And if we let our borders collapse, the facts that support our freedom will be gone, and you know it.” – Alan Keyes