The Immigrant Song
When spending a little time in Arizona like I did a few weeks ago you quickly feel how important immigration issues are there. You step out of your hotel room, go to a gas station, turn on the radio, and read billboards. You come into contact with Spanish. You talk with locals about the news of the day and soon illegal immigration will enter the conversation. Illegals are putting tremendous burdens on social services and police forces. On the positive side they provide cheaper labor to companies--imagine a $150/night Motel 6 room in Phoenix. Arizonans are fed up with illegals crossing the border. Voters passed Proposition 200 which requires people to prove they are citizens before voting or receiving government benefits.
I sympathize with those who have witnessed decades of law-breaking. I understand those who are mad at the federal government for failing to secure the border, but then I read people like Project Arkansas Now's Joe McCutchen declaring the U.S. "a Third World dumping ground." The not-so-subtle racism is also demonstrated with The Minuteman Project where volunteer Arizonans will go to the U.S.-Mexico border 04.01.05 to help the border patrol watch for illegal aliens crossing into the U.S.
I wonder if this isn't so much fear of illegal immigrants as much as immigrants in general. I suspect if the current numbers entering illegally were actually legal these people would still be decrying the "Third World trash" coming to the U.S.
For the most part, I'm a free borders guy. Just like the freeflow of capital, goods, and services, I support the freeflow of labor. A better allocation of economic resources displaces some but benefits society as a whole.
This doesn't mean I support closing down the boarder patrol, turning a blind eye to illegals crossing the border, or supporting President Bush's new immigration ideas. A pre-requisite of a nation-state is to deliniate the geographical area of itself. A nation-state can't exist if no one knows where it begins and where it ends. For self-defense purposes a nation-state has to be able and willing to defend its borders. It has to be protected from invading armies and terrorist cells. In addition having a class of lawbreakers living comfortably within the nation-state insults the rule of law. Those who broke the law to come to the U.S. have proven they don't respect its immigration laws. What other laws will they flout because they're inconvienent?
The Minuteman Project is an airhorn to Washington, D.C. Something has gone seriously wrong along the border if citizens are willing to guard the border themselves. (I bet most will scurry away after some wacko gets into a shootout with someone on the Mexican side of the border.) The borders have to be strengthened, illegals have to be denied benefits, and employers have to be punished for knowingly hiring illegals. U.S. laws have to be enforced or they become meaningless along with the nation-state.
In support of immigration I back ditching the restrictions on things like H-1B visas. If an employer wants to bring someone from outside the U.S. to work let them. Let that worker pass unheeded and legally past a customs agent so we have a record of who's come in. There should be no limit to the number of legal immigrants into the U.S. Nor should an employer or employee have to prove their techical skills are needed. The federal government shouldn't be in the business of centrally planning high tech labor. More people means more possibilities for new, innovative ideas. That means a great chance of a better life for all Americans. As long as they are willing to obey our laws we should welcome anyone from anywhere.