Immigration

There is mass immigration protests today all across the country. Today is named the "National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice". There are rallies in Concord, Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Atlanta, North Carolina, Dallas, Austin, Pittsburgh, Kansas, Philadelphia, Indiana, Kentucky, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, ...you name it, there is a protest by immigrants (and freedom-loving Americans) in it. About a week ago, there was a protest in OKC, and it was huge! (I heard that there is a rally today in OKC as well) The next day, there was another protest, but by an anti-immigration group. The crowd was minuscule as compared to a day before. The immigrant population is growing by leaps and bounds as time goes by.

I have no problem with all of this. Remember, America is a "nation of immigrants". I am 1/16 Choctaw, so 15/16 of me descended from immigrants, and so is the vast majority of you. The greatest symbol freedom of all, the Statue of Liberty, has a poem by Emma Lazarus inscripted in its base. The poem is called, "The New Colossus". It reads, in part, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" In other words, the greatest symbol of freedom is a welcome to immigrants. God's Greatest Commandment is to "love God". God's Second-Greatest Commandment is to "love thy neighbor". In the Greatest Commandment, God means God; it's self-explanatory. In the Second-Greatest commandment, God means people in general as "thy neighbor", including immigrants. If to "love your neighbor" means to build a wall to keep people out, it is antithetical in every sense of the phrase.

However, some "anti-immigration" advocates differ with me. They list reasons why they oppose people doing a sinister thing as "crossing the border" (oh my gosh!) to make life better for themselves. I will list reasons one at a time:

They will pollute our culture. Oh really? What culture do you mean? The French and Cajun
culture in New Orleans? The Cuban culture in Miami? The New England culture in Boston? The southern culture in Atlanta? The cowboy culture in Dallas? The outdoor culture in Cheyenne? The grunge culture in Seattle? The Mexican culture in El Paso? The gambling culture in Las Vegas? The surf culture in Los Angeles? And don't forget the many Chinatowns and Little Italys within the major cities. What culture is it? The "American culture" is a culture of freedom, where you may go where you will be the happiest.

Immigrants will take jobs away from us. That is not exactly correct. Immigrants displace American workers in the short run, but Americans will benefit by hiring for an ever-expanding, better-paying job because of an influx of immigrants. In the long run, American will benefit by immigrant workers. Besides, this is not to mention the immigrants do the jobs Americans won't do. By the way, the jobs belong to the owners, not the workers. If the owner wants to give the job to the immigrant worker instead of the American worker, that's the owner's choice. The labor belongs to the workers. If the worker wants to work for an immigrant company instead of the American company, that's the worker's choice. The owners have to compete for the worker with the better, higher-paying jobs. The workers have to compete for the owner with harder, smarter, more efficient work. That is called free enterprise and supply-and-demand.

Immigrants are lazy and, once inside, they will go on welfare. I hate to tell you, but the opposite is happening. The immigrants are the hardest-working people in the world. You take an American getting an unemployment check, and an immigrant new to crossing the border trying to find work, I will take the immigrant every of the week and twice on Sunday! But, if the slight chance that immigrants are milking off the government dole, then repeal the welfare state, as well as the taxes that will pay for it, for immigrants and Americans. But, if the Americans are hopelessly addicted on welfare, at least immigrants are not.

If we let the borders be open, immigrants can encroach upon my property. That is a different subject entirely. For example, Jacob Hornberger, as a child, lived in Laredo, TX; a border town across the Rio Grande and Mexico. Hornberger's family themselves lived on a farm on the banks of the river. If an immigrant crossed the river and trespassed on the Hornberger's farm, that is a crime, and the Hornberger's family will have a right to defend themselves against the intruder. But, the family can also say if the immigrant only wanted some help, the family could offer help. On their property, this is the family's decision, and their decision alone. Private property has nothing to do with crossing the border. It's apples and oranges.

Immigrants will bring in drugs. Lots of people bring drugs in the country, Americans and immigrants alike. Not the harshest police-state would ever alter that fact. Why don't we legalize all drugs and let drug users and drug traffickers be. We will be safer by far. There is no better example of an immoral, destructive, and failed government program than the war on drugs. Don't let the failed government program be used to justify another.

There will be too many people if immigrants have open borders. I have one question: how many people is "too many"? Who decides the ideal number? I know the answer: let the market decide. If jobs are lacking, then the immigrants will move a place with jobs. If jobs are plenty, then the immigrants will stay. Just like Americans do.

If we let immigrants cross our borders freely, then terrorist will enter our country. The facts is this: the terrorists can enter our country to attack us, even if we built a Berlin Wall around the USA. The only permanent solution for our country against terrorists is to bring our troops home, discharge them, and dismantle the empire. And, if the chance of terrorist attack are nil, we will have free trade with anybody who can. Remember, if we don't have goods crossing the border, soldiers will. If we follow the interventionist paradigm like before, there is a continuous chance that the terrorist will continue to attack our country, no matter how many roadblocks we lay.

Well, I guess "legal" immigration is okay, but "illegal" is "illegal"; they broke the law. So disobey and change or repeal the law. Slavery was legal, until the ratification of the 13th Amendment. Voting by women was illegal, until the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Federal income tax is illegal today to most people, but the IRS still collects it, and the people still pay it. As the laws stands now, some immigrants are illegal, but the same immigrants committed a victimless crime, so it is a bad law. The Framers said to ignore bad laws. Thomas Jefferson (a lawyer) once said, "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because the law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." If you are tried in court for breaking bad laws , there is an organization called The Fully Informed Jury. Jefferson also said, "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its Constitution." They use jury nullification (a perfectly legal option) to nullify bad laws. They teach juries that it is the right, as well as the duty, to not only judge the facts, but also the law, the moral intent of the accused, and the justice of the laws, as taught by Lysander Spooner and the rest of the honorable attorneys.

Speaking about the Framers, Thomas Jefferson also said about immigration, "The natural right which all men have of relinquishing the country in which birth or other accident may have thrown them, and seeking subsistence and happiness wheresoever they may be able, and hope to find them." George Washington, the "father of our country", said, "I had always hope that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong." If you are a libertarian (i.e., you want to live in a free society), and you are a Christian, you have no choice but to cherish immigration.