Just look at S. 744, the bill passed by the Senate and largely embraced by Ryan. Not only does S. 744 set strict immigration quotas for each sector of the economy for the next couple of years, it even sets wages for entire job categories. “Agricultural equipment operators” are to be paid exactly $11.30, under S. 744, while crop harvesters are set to make $9.17. There simply is no free-market justification for any of these wage controls.

And, while these initial quotas and controls do eventually expire, what replaces them is no better from a conservative free-market perspective. S. 744 creates a brand new government bureaucracy, called the Bureau of Immigration and Labor Market Research, charged with setting brand new quotas and wage controls for the future.

Does Ryan believe that the existing quotas and wage controls in S. 744 will properly manage future agricultural labor demand now? How much confidence does he have in Washington bureaucrats properly setting those quotas and wage controls in the future?

And, if Ryan is not a sudden convert to top-down government control of the economy, then what does he think will happen when the Bureau of Immigration and Labor Market Research misses its mark? That’s right. More illegal immigration.