Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Open minds to immigration

This week Congress and the President may determine the fate of 12 million illegal, mostly Hispanic immigrants in the United States.

Some lawmakers want our current immigration laws enforced and to seize, jail and deport the illegals. Others want a wall built between the U.S. and Mexico to prevent future influxes. Still others believe that illegals already in the U.S. should be given amnesty, and that future government efforts be directed to enforcing the border with more manpower and technology.

The other choice - the one that gets no play in the major media - is the open immigration policy that the federal government employed for our country's first four score. It was only after several states passed their own immigration laws following the Civil War that Congress made immigration a national issue.

In 1875 Congress restricted the immigration of prostitutes and felons. In 1882 it barred the insane, the mentally handicapped, people likely in need of public care and Chinese immigrants. The Immigration Service was not established until 1891. Racial and national quotas became the norm during the 1920s.

This is to say that the federal government's role in controlling immigration is largely ahistorical and tainted with prejudice, which should be morally objectionable to all of us. Modern proponents say immigration control is necessary because of advances in technology, but their anti-immigrant attitudes began long before modern transportation and weapons of mass destruction.

Make no mistake that today's immigration debate is not about preventing white Canadians from immigrating to this country, but instead over people with a different skin color, language, culture and wealth than most of the Americans who object to them. Race and other socio-economic issues are at the heart of their objections.

The moral, political and economic answer to immigration is to embrace it, not fight it. There should be no barriers to opportunity. There is nothing moral in our use of threats and violence against people who peacefully seek better lives for themselves and their families. And we shouldn't blame them if we stupidly vote to tax ourselves to give them free benefits.

Open immigration and few government benefits was the policy of our lawmakers until about a hundred years ago, and is the policy of modern libertarians. Libertarians believe that government should be used to support freedom and opportunity for less fortunate people, not to give fortunate people control over opportunity.

We also should make immigration easier for those from countries other than Mexico. Current regulations and thin staffing at immigration offices force immigrants to choose between wasting time, effort and thousands of dollars to comply with the law or to risk deportation.

As confusing as the immigration debate may seem, our political choices are really quite clear. Either we support people's natural rights to seek better lives, or we vote for policies to suppress them. An open immigration policy does not preclude our federal government from screening for diseases, weapons and other contraband, just as it does today.

The Golden Rule says to treat other people as we would like to be treated. Wouldn't we find it objectionable, immoral and even primitive if Mexicans built a wall against us and used threats and violence to send Americans packing?

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why does America have to support the job needs of the rest of the world?
Why should Americans allow more unskilled or low-skilled workers into the country when we already have a plethora?
Why don't we just appropriate Mexico and extend our borders all the way to Central America?

7:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, Im all for the USA... when i hear the immigrants now complaining that its unfair that that the ones that have gone by the book now face issues regarding citizenship because of the many that break the rules.....too damn bad.....welcome to the real world. its always been this way....."the few ruin it for the many" we deal with it everyday, we dont like it but we do need rules !!!!!....so to all you whiners.....go home and stay there...we dont want ya anyway!!!!!....New Yorker

4:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

" Wouldn't we find it objectionable, immoral and even primitive if Mexicans built a wall against us and used threats and violence to send Americans packing?"

How does Mexico treat their illegals? What would be the penalty for mass street protest and trying to influence their politics.

Copies of the Mexican Constitution have been posted on several boards. I think we should be treating their citizens the same damn way they treat others.

What is disturbing about the demonstrations is that it's tantamount to saying,
"I am going to come into your country even if it means breaking your laws
and there's not a god damn thing you can do about it."

It's an in your face action and I don't like it one damn bit. Nor would I ever vote for or support any politician that encourages or aids this illegal invasion.

Dick Lugar should be a foreign lobbiest not a US Senator. Both Lugar and Bayh have bad voting records on immigration issues.
LUGAR http://profiles.numbersusa.com/improfile.php3?DistSend=IN&VIPID=295
BAYH
http://profiles.numbersusa.com/improfile.php3?DistSend=IN&VIPID=900

Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform & Enforcement
http://www.ifire.org/

4:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's thinkers like you that give the party the name losertarians. Let's give these immigrants a chance. I for giving them a copy (in spanish) of the U.S. Bill of Rights. When we deport them back to Mexico they should have the idea of overthrowing their elite. I can't wait for the elite in the U.S. are overthrown. The ones hiring illegals can pick our crops.

8:43 AM  
Blogger Kurt St. Angelo said...

Thanks Anonymous for your comments. I couldn't disagree with you more. I don't see where you get the moral authority to decide what opportunities are available to less fortunate people. I don't think you should be in charge of anyone's life but your own. Yet you think you should decide who get opportunity and who doesn't. It's as if you're trying to play God, but you're clearly not qualified.

6:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

anonymous
really now who do you think works out in 100+ degree heat in the fields&orchards, cleans , sorts and packs all the wonderful fresh produce that you like to walk into the stores and pick up at your convience? Who do you think is going to pluck and clean all those Thanksgiving turkeys, who is going to do all the laundry and cleaning at your favorite hotels? Really now do you think any spoiled Americans? Get real. They would rather collect welfare.

5:33 PM  

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