How Immigration Restrictions Cripple American Businesses

Podcast audio:

In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Agustina Vergara Cid discuss how arbitrary immigration laws strangle American business.

Among the topics covered:

• How immigration restrictions impose a form of economic central planning;
• The role of the mixed economy in fueling the interest-group battle for legal carve-outs;
• How ICE raids are used to terrorize businesses and hard-working immigrants;
• How the Trump administration’s visa rollback reveals its affinity for central planning;
• Why arbitrary immigration enforcement threatens to cripple every major American industry;
• Why supporting American business means defending the freedom to hire and trade.

Recommended in this podcast are Vergara Cid’s article “Immigration Regulations Strangle American Businesses,” her OCON 2023 talk “The Immorality of the U.S. Immigration System,” and Bayer’s article “Ayn Rand on Free Trade, the ‘Essence of Capitalism’s Foreign Policy’.”

The podcast was recorded on June 23, 2025 and posted on July 2, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.