Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday demanded an end to what he called a “neoliberal” status quo on immigration policy that he said is embraced across the political aisle.
The Indian-American entrepreneur in a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington pushed for the Right to get tough on immigration, both legal and illegal.
“We are in the middle of a national identity crisis,” Ramaswamy said. “We have lost our sense of who we are as citizens of this nation, and sloppy immigration policies have only worsened that crisis.”
To address the problem, the country needs “greater screening requirements for legal immigrants that screen not just for their ability to make economic contributions, but also for their willingness and readiness to adopt and share American values during their time here, values that are enshrined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution,” he said.
He described “the lack of a shared national identity” as “one of the greatest threats to the continued existence of our republic”—stressing that this identity does not center on “a genetic lineage” or “common ethnicity,” but rather on “a shared set of civic ideals.”
Ramaswamy ran unsuccessfully for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination before dropping out of the race in January. He is now an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, which has similarly proposed “ideological screenings of all immigrants” to the U.S.
Ramaswamy, 38, who was born in Ohio to two immigrant parents, said in his speech that dual citizenship must be ended because one cannot “pledge allegiance to two nations at once” and that there cannot be “birthright citizenship for the kids of illegals in this country.”
Preserving American identity also means “the adoption of English as the national language of the United States,” he said. “A nation founded on ideals can’t exist if you can’t communicate those ideals to one another.”
The young conservative leader also called for “heightened civics exams, not just for citizenship, but even for green cards and other forms of entry.”
Summarizing his immigration stance, Ramaswamy declared, “Entering the United States of America is not a right. It is a privilege, and with that privilege comes a duty to this country.”
He was greeted with applause from the audience when he added that there should be “no migration without consent” and that “migrants who enter unlawfully without consent must be removed.”
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