« Juuusst a Bit Insane! | Main | Irony »
March 27, 2006
An Unacceptable Argument
I should really do this funny, as Captain Subtext, but I'm not feeling humorous right now, so you get it straight up.
There has been a series of rallies in the last few days across the US, dedicated to the proposition that people who come to or stay in the US in violation of the law are not criminals, but honest people seeking good work. OK, fair enough as far as it goes; I'll give up that point without making the obvious snarky rejoinder because there's something more important: has anyone actually looked at the argument that the people protesting in favor of illegal immigration are really making? It ends up being this: the United States government should have no control of American borders. Here is the chain of logic, though most of it would be denied vociferously by those in favor of illegal immigration:
1. People who come here, or stay here, in violation of US law on who can come here or stay here are just looking for a good job, and are honest people who contribute much to American society.
2. Because just looking for a good job, and contributing to American society, are good things, the government should allow this regardless of any other considerations. In particular, the government should not enforce any laws that take notice of whether a person has followed or broken the rules on coming and staying here.
3. This advantages people who break immigration law over those who follow it, because there is no paperwork or waiting period to coming here illegally, but there are such hindrances and obstacles to coming here legally. That is to say, supporting ignoring the law supports illegal immigration over legal immigration.
4. We don't want to do that, so the real options are to abolish or (same thing in effect) ignore immigration laws. The result being, completely open borders: if you cannot control who comes in, how can you control what comes in? Answer: you can't.
In an age of terrorism, that is simply unacceptable. Very libertarian, but not acceptable in practice.
I think a better case could be made for allowing in anyone who hasn't been kicked out for some reason or who is otherwise a threat or undesirable, but giving the government strong powers to kick out and keep out people under a broad range of causes of action, with very little impediment. That would certainly allow more people to come here for jobs, but would also give us the ability to kick them out and keep them out for, say, not paying taxes or committing some crime. As it is, we have created a shadow population and economy, which is not a good thing. And the proposals of the "pro-immigrant" (really, pro-illegal-immigrant) types would make that not better, but worse.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.caerdroia.org/MT/mt-tb.cgi/910