The Ethical Case for an Open Immigration Policy
The United States had an “open door” policy for white immigrants from the nation’s founding until the passage of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. As a result of the Naturalization Act of 1790, all “free white persons” of “good moral character” arriving on our shores were offered a short, simple path to full citizenship. In one of their often unheralded yet non-the-less remarkable contributions, the first generation of American statesmen welcomed Catholics ineligible for full citizenship in Great Britain, and Jews unable to naturalize in France. Over the next century, despite occasional bursts of nativist braying—most notably, the No Nothing Movement of 1854-1856—this nation remained largely faithful to those celebrated lines of the poet Emma Lazarus that are now inscribed upon the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearing to breathe free. While this promise of welcome rang undeniably hollow for Africans and Asians—one of our greatest causes for national shame—the very essence of American “exceptionalism” was our open gate.
As the issue of immigration returns to our national agenda, policy makers should remember that there is a third alternative to either deportation or amnesty for so-called “illegal” aliens: a return to the “open door” policy that built our nation. I do not have the professional expertise to speak to the economics of such an approach—although my personal intuition tells me that new immigrants will generate jobs rather than consume them—but the ethics of open borders are strikingly clear. Treating human beings differently, simply because they were born on the opposite side of a national boundary, is hard to justify under any mainstream philosophical, religious or ethical theory.
That is not to say that all “birthrights” are unjust. For example, while being born into a particular family is the result of chance, the right to inherit some of one’s parents’ property serves useful and meaningful social purposes—such as encouraging mothers and fathers to work and save for their offspring. The “birthright” of nationality serves no such social purpose. In contrast, the freedom to travel and to settle where one wishes, in pursuit of political freedom or economic opportunity, is among the most basic of human rights. I am grateful that my grandfather was admitted to this country, fleeing Belgium in the days before World War II. I am horrified by the sealed borders that prevented boatloads other Jewish refugees from following him. From an ethical point of view, however, it is difficult to distinguish such political refugees—to whom we do grant asylum today—from the millions of economic refugees who seek freedom from abject poverty.The principal difference between the Irish peasants who once fled the potato blight on coffin ships, and the desperate Haitian rafters that our navy forcibly repatriates today, is bad timing.
Any reasonable “open door” immigration policy should still exclude those who pose a danger to our current citizenry: would-be terrorists, wanted felons, tuberculosis patients unwilling to accept treatment, etc. From an ethical standpoint, a liberal democracy might also restrict immigration should newcomers threaten to use the political process to dismantle existing freedoms—if, for example, ten million advocates of Taliban-style fundamentalism were to demand entrance into Luxembourg. Considering the size and diversity of our nation, any meaningful threat to American democracy from immigrants seems highly far-fetched.
This is not a policy proposal. I acknowledge that developing a functional, open borders regime could take several years, and might even require the progressive elevation of existing immigration quotas over time until the point where supply exceeded demand. That does not mean that open borders should not be the long-term goal of any ethical immigration policy. The modern version of Martin Luther King Jr’s “dream” is that any child, born into the poorest slums of Africa, Asia or Latin America, should have a right to claim those same freedoms and opportunities of American citizenship that far too many of us take for granted. In an era when we are divided in so many ways as a nation, this should be the sort of visionary policy to which all people—religious and secular, traditional and progressive, Native Americans and descendants of immigrants—can say, Yes We Can!
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Lets just let everyone in Jacob? From anywhere? And everywhere? Forget those pesky old laws which have no place in our "dreams." Yea, that's the ticket. And of course, everyone who comes in needs "our" help? Of course, we don't need to think about what that will do to our state's economies, right Jacob?
With California facing a $42 billion deficit in the current economic downturn, a glum Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has warned that the Golden State is on the brink of insolvency. So lets take a "statistical" peak?
The land of illegal immigrants, socialism, and the high taxes to pay for it all. The brutal tax increases will cost the average California family an extra $1,000 a year in taxes. Californians will now pay a 8.25% state sales tax, this makes the total sales as high as 10% depending on the county. This is the highest state sales tax in the nation. Californians will have a quarter percent increase in state income tax and the dependent credit will drop 66%. This move would most likely make California second in highest state income taxes. California vehicle tax will double,making it one of the highest in the nation. The staggering 12 cent increase in state gas tax was nixed to get one more Republican vote. However, Californians already have has the third highest state gas tax in the nation. A brutal .353 cents per gallon.
California leaning towards massive tax hike. California already has some of the highest taxes in the nation to pay for it’s massive illegal alien population and socialist policies. Also because of high taxes and easy access to an illegal work force, California leads the nation in off the books cash only businesses who are not paying taxes. With businesses run out of the state, or simply not paying taxes, California now gets over half it’s revenue from state income tax alone.
Did you know that the state of California gave 432 million dollars worth of welfare and food stamps to illegal aliens in LA County with “anchor babies.” This is just the illegal aliens who are legally receiving welfare under California state law. This doesn’t count the illegals who’s children were born overseas and are fraudulently receiving welfare. The state also spends an estimated 400 million a year for health care for illegal aliens in LA County. With the costs of schooling and incarcerating illegals, the combined strain on the state and county for illegal aliens in LA County is easily in excess of 2 Billion dollars per year.
Nationally, Across America, every state, county, and city is going bankrupt. The state in the worst shape is California which is now 58% non-white. Welfare, free health care, and other public services to immigrants is pushing America to the brink. Instead of closing the border, Obama recently issued a back door amnesty for illegal aliens from Haiti. Even releasing Haitian illegal aliens from detention centers who have already been convicted of crimes in the United States! (From NumbersUSA) Approximately 1/2 of immigrant households (both legal and illegal) with kids access welfare services, primarily food and Medicaid. Many argue that immigration is a social issue, but it’s a fiscal issue as well. The immigrant population has grown by an average of 1.3 million per year since 2000, plus an additional 1 million new births in those households. That’s 23 million new people every decade, and HALF of all immigrant families are using welfare, especially food and Medicaid welfare! This includes illegal AND legal immigrants.
When Nobel Prize-winning libertarian economist Milton Friedman was asked about unlimited immigration in 1999, he stated that "it is one thing to have free immigration to jobs. It is another thing to have free immigration to welfare. And you cannot have both."
Please, save America from the cluelessly, or worse, articulate, like Jacob and the data contortions they must perform to try to convince us that the answer to high unemployment is to open our borders to a never-ending flood of the Third-World unemployed. Add to that the chain migration that infinitely follows as everyone from in-laws to grandparents to toddlers to someone's aunt's teenage adopted son's stepfather's cousin all chain their way into the U.S., then needing massive social services in health, welfare, education , not to mention, um, law enforcement.. Of course our state and local governments are just loaded with ready cash.
Your friendly neighborhood bank, can I help you?
Customer: Yes, I want to cancel my account. I don't want to do business
with you any longer.
The Bank: Why?
Customer: You're giving credit to illegal immigrants and I don't think
it's right. I'm taking my business elsewhere.
The Bank: Well, Mr. Customer, we don't want to see you do that, but we
can'tstop you. I'll help you close the account. What is your account number?
Customer: (gives account number)
The Bank: For security purposes and for your protection, can you please
give me the last four digits of your social security number?
Customer: No?
The Bank: Mr. Customer, I need to verify your information, but in order
to helpyou, I'll need verification of who you are..
Customer: Why should I give you my social security number? The reason
I'm closing my account is that your bank is issuing credit cards to illegal
immigrants who don't have social security numbers. You are targeting that audience and
want their business. Let's say I'm an illegal immigrant and you've given me a
credit card . I have a question about it and call for assistance. You wouldn't
be asking me for a Social Security number, would you?
The Bank: No sir, I wouldn't.
Customer: Why not?
The Bank: Because you would have pressed '2' to speak in Spanish. We
don't ask for that information when calling in on the Spanish line.
"Dang Mexycans making me press 2 on the telyphone!"
Dear President Obama:
I'm planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for my health , and I would like to ask you to assist me. We're planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico , and we'll need your help to make a few arrangements. We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws . I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Calderon, that I'm on my way over? Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:
1. Free medical care for my entire family.
2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.
3. Please print all Mexican Government forms in English.
4. I want my grand- kids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bi-lingual) teachers.
5. Tell their schools they need to include classes on American culture and history .
6. I want my grand-kids to see the American flag on one of the flag poles at their school .
7. Please plan to feed my grand-kids at school for both breakfast and lunch.
8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy access to government services.
9. I do plan to get a car and drive in Mexico , but I don't plan to purchase car insurance , and I probably won't make any special effort to learn local traffic laws.
10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from their president to leave me alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer.
11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my housetop, put U S. flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.
12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes , or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business I may start.
13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say critical things about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy .
14. I want to receive free food stamps .
15. Naturally, I'll expect free rent subsidies .
16. I'll need income tax credits so that although I don't pay Mexican taxes, I'll receive money from the government.
17. Please arrange it so that the Mexican Government pays $4,500.00 to help me buy a new car.
18. Oh yes, I almost forgot, please enroll me free into the Mexican Social Security program so that I'll get a monthly income in retirement .
I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all his people who walk over to the U.S. from Mexico . I am sure that President Calderon won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.
Thank you so much for your kind help.
Sorry, but your sarcastic snarkiness made your post unreadable.
I agree with the argument. I wish it went further. I would like to see a proper analysis of the political and economic implications of open immigration .
Of course it is not going to happen over night but we need to have a clear vision of where we are aiming to be by some wonderful day in the future in order that we can start working towards it.
We are one species. None of us own the earth, the earth owns us. We look back now with horror at the age of slavery yet little has really changed. Because people cannot move freely across boundaries many are still enslaved to economic forces, tyranny, very short lifespans and so on. Meanwhile the west and north builds a bigger and bigger fortress around its wealth. This is greed on a massive scale, and injustice at least as bad as slavery.
Of course opening up borders will mean that much greater numbers will migrate from poor countries to rich countries. The rich will become poorer as a consequence and the poor will become richer. But this is precisely as it should be. We are as I said one species. We need to become one race .
Our brothers and sisters in deprived countries all around the world are just as entitled to live where we live as we are.
But at this point the argument becomes complex. I am not proposing that other people can necessarily take over land that is being cultivated or houses that are being lived in. Immigrants will have to observe the laws of the lands they chose to live in (and I am advocating that those laws should not of course exclude them from entering other countries). This fact of course mitigates against the 'flood' of immigration that some fear. As does the fact that migrants will have to find the means to get to richer countries- and most have far too little resources to do this. So even if all borders were to be thrown open tomorrow there would still be a gradual process as migrations gradually started to increase.
It would also be necessary to have legislation to prevent traficking- in the sense of people who offer transit to other countries for the purposes of exploiting their clients once they arrive at their destination.
These details need thinking through and I would appreciate a steer if anyone knows of it to any literature that has been written on the subject. Meanwhile I agree with this article that the moral case for opening all borders is compelling.
I'm surprised that a person who is so proud of his Judaic heritage is so unfamiliar with God's law . The Torah states very clearly and unequivocally:
"Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion."
If America had remained a predominantly white Christian nation, I doubt we would even be considering the prospect of allowing people to turn our country into a modern day Sodom and Gommorah by copulating with animals in our midst.
But since we have made the mistake of allowing peoples of other faiths and ehtnicities to swarm in amongst us, in such numbers as to have been able now to have assumed political power over us, I would just like to say to those "progressives" among our current President's Czars and Czarinas who advocate civil rights for animals (the ability to sue humans, etc.):
if you want to give animals all of the rights heretofore only enjoyed by humans, then they must also be liable for the same penalties for the same offences. In particular, all dogs, cats, horses, etc. will need to be made subject to prosecution for indecent exposure .
We certainly cannot have unequal protection under the law , now can we?
Our founding fathers would disagree with you.
Thomas Jefferson: "And the day will come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His Father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva, in the brain of Jupiter."
Benjamin Franklin: "Lighthouses are more helpful then churches."
James Madison: "There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites."
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion .” (Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11: Written during the Administration of George Washington and signed into law by John Adams.)
Our Constitution is an entirely secular document that builds a wall of separation of church and state which establishes our goverment as secular.
If you want to live in a theocracy then go live in Iran.
You need to get clear on your terms, mister.
"A nation is a grouping of people who share common history , culture, language and ethnic origin" -wikipedia
The culture shared by the original White, primarily British, European settlers of this nation, was Christian.
They were of diverse branches of Christianity,and that is why they provided that the government would not have an established Christian sect - "an establishment of religion "
And that is why they specified that the blessings of liberty were to be guaranteed to their (White) posterity, not to the posterity of alien cultures, religions, and races.
Of course we are no longer a pure nation, just a factionalized country, defined by nothing other than geographical boundaries, and thus destined to follow soon in the dissolute paths of all other once proud nations, who succumbed to the doctrines of multiculturalism.
Nation : a politically organized nationality; a community of people composed of one or more nationalities and possessing a more or less defined territory and government ~merriam-webster
You're very selective with your definitions. The one that I found includes people with different nationalities and is defined by politics .
Most of our most important founding fathers weren't Christian and they are the ones that wrote the secular Constitution. Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying it does not bother him one bit if his neighbor worships 20 gods or no gods, when talking about the establishment clause.
We are not "factionalized" at all. Just because we are diverse, with all sorts of races, philosophies and politics, doesn't mean that we aren't united under the American principals and values in which this country was founded.
Give me you tire, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free!