We’re worried.

A Wall Street Journal poll of Republican voters finds that the party’s support for free trade and legal immigration is falling. Today, more than half of Republicans support higher import tariffs, and only 44% support more LEGAL immigration.

These are both troubling findings. Trump’s tough on China trade stance makes sense, but America must not sacrifice the freedom to trade. As Arthur Laffer and Milton Friedman have taught us, free trade is one of the five pillars of prosperity. Free-trade nations grow much faster than protectionist nations. They also enjoy higher wages, lower prices, and higher living standards – as our friends at the Heritage Foundation remind us.

On immigration, Americans are rightly angry as hornets about the open border policy of Biden. We must secure our border.

But LEGAL immigration is and always has been one of America’s greatest comparative advantages. There would be no Silicon Valley and no American technology dominance without the trillions of dollars of added GDP if it weren’t for the immigrant talent that comes to these shores from all over the world.

Given the aging of the U.S. baby boom population, it’s almost impossible for the U.S. to attain the 3 to 3.5% real growth that we need to solve our fiscal debacle, without the fresh blood of young foreign workers. Most immigrants arrive between the ages of 16 and 35 – right in the prime of their working years. We must seal the border and then consider doubling visas for legal immigrant workers.

America’s position should be: free trade YES; illegal immigration NO; legal immigration YES; welfare NO.