Conservatives see the best in people.

Ronald Reagan spoke of America as that “shining city on a hill” that all the world and every American will aspire to support.

When it comes to immigration, our policy should reflect that. We are a nation of immigrants. We should encourage hard working people to come here legally and contribute to our economy, where many labor shortages are evident. Undocumented workers are often compelled to work in the shadow economy, subjecting them to potential exploitation, making them afraid to report crimes or seek legal representation, and limiting their unable to participate and contribute to our society.

Giving good people a pathway to work, live, and pay taxes will not only improve lives, it will protect our national security by allowing us to focus our resources on the truly bad actors that do want to cause us harm.

• Acknowledge and celebrate the legal immigrants who positively enrich our economy and our society
• Provide a fast track for immigration that fills our labor shortages
• Provide a pathway to legal status and citizenship for Dreamers
• Treat refugees and asylum seekers with dignity

We also need to establish that an immigrants' first steps into the US should be legal ones:

• We are a nation of laws, and immigrants should abide by our immigration laws