Kentucky Republican Rand Paul says some immigrants in US illegally should be able to work
Immigrants in the country illegally should be allowed to stay and work as long as they haven't committed any other crimes, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul told The Enquirer on Wednesday.
But they should not be allowed to become citizens, said Paul, a Republican from Bowling Green, Kentucky, who now heads the influential Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
"I would simply say, 'you no longer have to run from the law,'" Paul said of undocumented immigrants who have not committed any crimes. "If you want to work in our country and you're willing to be a productive member of our society, you stay. And that would be the trade-off."
Paul, in an interview with The Enquirer, struck a different tone than President Donald Trump, who promised to deport all people who came to the country illegally in what he called the "largest deportation program in American history."
Paul: Criminals should be deported first
Paul agreed with much of Trump's immigration policies, including the deportation of criminals living in the United States illegally. When asked who should be deported, Paul said the country should first deport criminals and "then decide where we go beyond that."
For those who came to the country illegally but have otherwise worked and lived peacefully, Paul said they should be allowed a work permit.
"If I were in charge, I would allow people, if they are not wanted for crime, have not committed a crime, and they've been living here in a reasonable fashion, if they wanted to work, I'd allow them to have work permits," Paul said. "But I wouldn't give them a path to citizenship or a path to voting."
Have undocumented immigrants been allowed to work in the past?
The country has provided amnesty for some undocumented people working in the U.S. but has limited it to certain groups.
In 2012, President Barack Obama, through an executive order, created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals which allowed young adults who came to the United States as children to work and study without fear of deportation.
Just before leaving office, President Joe Biden's administration extended temporary protected status to more than 1 million immigrants from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine, Sudan and Ukraine, allowing them to continue working in the United States. Most of the Venezuelans in the program had crossed the border illegally or came as a part of Biden administration programs to reduce illegal immigration, CBS News reported.
Trump at the end of January revoked the immigration protections for more than 600,000 Venezuelans in the program.
How much of the workforce is made up of people here illegally?
Undocumented immigrants accounted for about 5% of the U.S. labor force in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. Of the 11 million undocumented immigrants estimated in the country in 2022, 8.3 million were in the labor force, Pew Research Center statistics showed.
This story was updated to add a video.