Reflections
Reagan addressed the issue of ‘illegals’ directly and with surprising candor. In a radio address in 1977, he observed 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 illegal 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.
Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek