“What I am talking about is … the possibility of legal status so long as the immigrants who are living here illegally pay their back taxes, are checked for any criminal offense because criminals must be deported … learn English, learn civics, learn history, learn the constitution,” he said.
“They have to go through a process and I think that’s very, very important. I don’t want them put at the front of the line for citizenship. I’m not really even talking about citizenship right now. I’m talking about legal status.
“[Sen.] Rand Paul [of Texas] has come out for legal status in a similar way, so has [Texas] Gov. Rick Perry, so has former [Florida] Gov. Jeb Bush. I like the direction here.”
Kudlow said it is also important to attract immigrant “brainiacs” as well as students and blue-collar workers.
“We need the high-tech electric engineers, all the Silicon Valley people. We need the foreign students we’re educating. Why should we send them home? Why not keep them here?” he said.
“We need the low-end workers. That’s what the Farmers Association and the Retailers Association are telling us. In other words, we need legal immigration.
“We need legal visa increases. If we do that, the more population will expand and increase economic growth. It’s real simple. Population times productivity equals growth.”
Kudlow pointed to the low number of immigrants who supported Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012.
“Twenty-seven percent of Asians voted for Mitt Romney, 27 percent of Hispanics voted for Mitt Romney. The GOP cannot win with those kinds of numbers,” he said.
“If the party has a sensible policy and puts its best foot forward with the kind of principles that I’m encouraging here, it will make an impact.
“I am a conservative Catholic and all that goes with that, but I am willing to work in the same big tent as my friends from the Log Cabin Republicans. I believe that kind of attitude, which is an open inclusionary attitude, is missing from the GOP and must change.”
With that, the negative perception of the GOP will change, he believes.
“Right now, the GOP has a bad image. It’s an image of cranky white men and women. That image has to change,” Kudlow said.