Reagan did not buy into the zero-sum economics behind the Trump immigration proposal, which holds that American-born workers are being displaced by low-skilled immigrants, who are taking their jobs and reducing their wages. He believed that immigrants, both skilled and unskilled, were critical to unleashing economic growth that would lead to greater prosperity for all. Reagan rejected “Jimmy Carter’s view of . . . [an] ever-shrinking economic pie with smaller pieces for each of us” and promised, “We can have a bigger pie with bigger slices for everyone. . . . We can make that dream that brought so many of us or our parents and grandparents to this land live once more.”

Indeed, the academic research on immigration and jobs tends to support Reagan’s view. A 2010 study by Giovanni Peri, a professor at University of California at Davis, found that “When the economy is growing, new immigration creates jobs in sufficient numbers to leave native employment unharmed, even in the relatively short run and even for less-educated native workers.” Indeed, Peri found that in the long run, immigration “unambiguously improves employment, productivity and income” for the native-born and immigrants alike.