Libertarians seem to have a very sharp divide on a few issues. The question of dealing with illegal immigration is definitely one of the most divisive issues among most of the libertarians I’ve read up on in various blogs. The divide comes down to the age old question of open borders versus immigration enforcement.
With the recent Arizona Immigration Law court ruling, where certain provisions were struck down, I’d like to elaborate some of my positions on immigration. Now, it isn’t exactly black or white, because there are very complex economic, political, and administrative issues that have created this mess.
First of all, I am not for open borders right now. I believe that open borders should be our ultimate goal, but simply overturning immigration laws at the Federal and State level will not create a healthy open borders situation. The problem largely lies in Federal government intrusion into various areas of our lives. Immigration laws should be the last laws to be repealed, not the first and simply providing amnesty to all illegal aliens here will only create more problems.
A major factor that just about no considers is the impact of the minimum wage on the demand for illegal labor. If an employer has to pay more for his employees, then he may very seek out day laborers in order to mitigate his expenses. Because of the minimum wage, most law-abiding people can’t compete with the illegal labor. So if we were to eliminate the minimum wage, we could see a lot of illegal labor being curtailed by young workers who are simply looking for some kind of experience.
Another major factor is the State Department’s lack of a clear, easy program for immigrating into the United States. The process, as any legal immigrate can tell you, puts the Vogon bureaucratic red tape to shame. It takes several weeks to several months for foreign nationals to immigrate here and the process is never easy.
The War on Drugs factors into this as well. Legalizing drugs (or having the Federal government back off of it) would greatly reduce the crime that is so prevalent on the borders. I know, this is a controversial position, but a large portion of crime is related to the illegal drug trade, which is nothing more than a sophisticated smuggling operation brought about by the demand for addicts here and the desire for money in third-world hellholes.
The welfare state must be dismantled entirely in order to ensure that those who come here are doing so for work and not for free rides. I know that a significant portion of the people who do come here are looking for better opportunities, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a large portion who are simply looking for a handout.
Lastly, much of our democratic system must be reworked so that the tyranny of the majority cannot reinstate the failed policies of Statism. If we have open borders, then you have to be prepared to see large portions of people crossing the border and voting the same way that they did in their own country (if they were allowed to vote). This means that whatever Statist policies were commonplace there could easily become commonplace here and this is flat out unacceptable. People, in general, tend to leave places for a better life, but often fail to discard their beliefs that created the intolerable conditions they are fleeing from. I call these people locust voters because they destroy everything by voting for Statists and then move on to another location when they don’t like the result.
In short, I am perfectly prepared to adopt a policy of open borders, provided we dismantle significant portions of the government first, which I don’t see happening at all, short of a total civilization collapse. So for the time being, I will support border enforcement policies until we get to that point, if we ever do.