A Republic, If You Can Keep It
August 20, 2007 by Scott Powell
In my very recent move from OC to Houston, my family “self-moved,” and as we trucked down the I8 and (just past Phoenix) the I10, I was struck by the sad fact that these highways have now basically become a second border with Mexico, and I was driven to reflect on what this means in terms of America’s cultural decline.
During the last school year, as I was getting to the end of European history (which I taught to elementary grade children across the country) I explained some of the important differences between the Western and Eastern Europe during the Cold War. Among these, I highlighted the fact that within Western European countries, citizens had freedom of movement, whereas in Eastern Europe, not only was there an “iron curtain” keeping you in, but you also had to justify your movement within your own country to the government.
This has started happening in the US as a result of the failure of our culture to answer the rightful demand for immigration. If you want to travel on the interstates near the Mexican border, you must now be prepared to justify yourself to government agents.
At this point, I would rate the border patrol’s presence on these roads as relatively innocuous (kind of like the first income tax), but the fact that they are there at all is the problem.
Apart from the laughable notion that the ”fix” for the apparent problem of having a porous border is to create a second far more porous one, what really worries me is that the people of America are allowing the erection of a larger and larger government apparatus (including new state and federal initiatives to crack down on employers) to deal with a perceived threat that is no threat at all.
Ironically, by denying these rights to others, Americans are allowing their own freedoms to be eroded.
It’s time every American stood up for el sueno Americano. It is everyone’s right, and it hurts everyone not to recognize it.
I drive between San Diego and Austin two or three times a year. Every time, I’m forced to slow down and let a guy in a green uniform peek in the window before waving me on. Thrice, mind you - just east of San Diego, somewhere in new Mexico, and again in West Texas. Takes nearly 90 seconds of my time for each check. Such a violation of my rights. I feel your pain.
As long as we’re discussing rights, my Vietnamese-immigrant Chiropractor’s son was murdered three years ago by a member of a cross-border drug ring. Oh, wait. Vietnamese. What would that kid need with a right not to be murdered?
How about the women in Bisbee who stay in hotels in Tucson for the last month of pregnancy? It seems all the Obstetricians in Southeast Arizona went broke because the law says they have to treat thousands of Illegals for free . . . Oops. My mistake. You never said these chicks have any right to a local doctor. And Doctors. They work for free anyway don’t they?
Maybe my Hungarian neighbor. Brought his two sons over for a year. The local authorities informed him he had to put the lads in school. So he did, into a school with a 40 percent illegal student body. But - before the proper forms were received by some obscure Government agency. The kids, and their mother, were deported. Oh, yeah - He’s a LEGAL immigrant (H1 Visa) and his wife is a Neurosurgeon. What do bloody over-edumacated Hungarians need with rights, anyway?
OK, I got it! You need a gardener, a fry-cook, and a nanny. And you don’t want to pay more than ten bucks a day (Kinda spendy these days in Houston, eh?). Well, if we forget about borders, let any Tom, Jose, or Achmed in without the bother of Visas, Social Security numbers, etc., then you’ll get a new peasant/servant class. They’ll go back to the slave quarters in the Barrio at night (not so sure about Achmed on that one) and not cause those dastardly green dudes to violate your rights to drive fast through West Texas! Cool!
Look, free movement of labor is in fact a perfectly good principle. But there are a few prerequisites:
1) Abolish the Welfare State.
Illegals may not be eligible for AFDC, but they get free public schools courtesy the taxpayer, socialized medicine courtesy of the local (bankrupt) hospital emergency room, and a plethora of stuff like food stamps and fraudulent disability payments. The world has no shortage of poor folks. I ain’t adopting them all.
2) Legalize drugs.
Decriminalize anyway. I Would have thought Al Capone had got that message through. As long as there’s so much money in drug-smuggling, we’re gonna get a lot of new mafiosos coming through that open border.
3) Deport the Democrats.
They’ll sign all those poor folks up to vote and set about making everybody Equal. In peasanthood, that is. Just like in all those worker’s paradise places.
For that matter, send the Neocons away too.
4) Revoke minimum-wage laws.
And tighten up disability payments, enforce occupancy codes, skip all the translated government documents (some 90 languages?). Maybe abolish in-state tuition (why does a Honduran get that when an Okie can’t?)
5) Explain what “el sueno” means.
I speak English, German, Serbo-Croatian, and Greek. No Spanish. If you want my support, you gotta use one of the languages I speak. This being the USA and all, I recommend English.
So.
The list is not all-inclusive, but you get the idea. Our Libertarian World Utopia is going to take some work . . .
CFM
I disagree with you that there are prerequisites to establishing freedom of immigration. In fact, establishing the right to immigrate could very well lead to precisely the kind of crisis in the statist areas you refer to that might lead to the abolition of those kinds of schemes.
Also, the point of the post is not to claim that some great injustice is being perpetrated by the border patrol, although their presence along the interstates is a huge waste of money, but rather to point out that because the right to immigrate is not recognized, we are on a slippery slope towards an even greater governmental presence in our lives.
“El Sueno” means “The Dream”. “El Sueno Americano,” which is the genuine goal of the vast majority of those who cross illegally into the US, is to pursue the American Dream. True criminals, of course, should be dealt with as criminals–another one of those “missing prerequisites” you might include in your list.
” . . . could very well lead to precisely the kind of crisis in the statist areas you refer to that might lead to the abolition of those kinds of schemes.”
Wow. You like doing things the hard way. The people who support “those kind of schemes” are not inclined to surrender them. There were surely Russians in 1917 who thought the “kinds of schemes” promised by the Bolsheviks would fall of their own weight.
Well. That worked, didn’t it? Communism did collapse and was abolished. Though we might want to think twice about the price in time, treasure, and blood. The abolition of the Welfare State will not occur short of national bankruptcy and collapse of the Government. Perhaps worse. That particular battle is better won using logic, rational argument, and the methods provided for in the U.S. Constitution.
There is no “right” to immigration. Not here, not anywhere. Such a “right” would negate the right of a sovereign nation to exclude the criminals you mentioned, and even to defend itself against invasion.
But this isn’t the point, is it? Immigration, specifically ILLEGAL and UNREGULATED immigration, is a serious _contributor_ to the real problem. Ready? Here we go: The real problem is the undermining of the rule of law, which empowers violation by Government of the rights of (formerly) free people.
The U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to “Establish an Uniform Rule of Naturalization” (Article 1, Section 8). Congress has done so. Nobody else is doing their damn job, with the exception of the pitifully undermanned and under-supported Border Patrol. Current law is not only not being enforced, it is being ignored, or worse, flaunted (Sanctuary cities and such). What we have now is chaos.
Employers can never be sure when some random enforcement action will bankrupt them (or cost them a good job - remember Linda Chavez?)
Immigrants never know when “la Migre” will show up and haul them away, or as in a recent case in Florida, simply confiscate several years earnings. In all cases, they live in a sub-culture, with all the pathologies that implies: lack of property rights, low living standards, lack of legal protection from fraud or theft, and the continuing corruption of their young people by screwball ideologues (e.g. La Raza), race/ethnicity based predators (gangs) or criminal cartels (coyotes, drug smugglers). They don’t even have access to the financial institutions which allow citizens and legal residents a mechanism for building wealth - banks, brokers, insurance, etc. They just get to work long hours at menial tasks, cheap, with little hope of ever advancing beyond the role of domestic servant. They may be illegal, but they are people. They should not be treated this way.
Citizens never know which “immigrant” they may encounter: a hard working gardener, an armed gang-banger, or some lunatic jihadist. Far too often it’s just an uninsured drunk driver or identity thief. And always, always the citizen and legal resident gets to pay for the socialistic “benefits” accorded anyone who shows up at a public school or a hospital emergency room. I don’t know about you, but I resent the hell out of paying 40-some percent of my income, and whopping insurance premiums, to pay for this crap.
Lefties, of course, love this chaos. The get a new, and growing, client group to enhance their power. They get a new source of fraudulent claims of “racism” to club their opposition with. They get more “poor and exploited” to justify pushing their demented fantasies of “Social Justice” and forced “Equality”.
None of this is necessary.
Start by enforcing existing law. That does NOT mean CLOSE the border. It means KEEP CONTROL and do things in an orderly fashion. Require a visa and acquisition of a Social Security number (we’re stuck with the ponzi scheme until it finally collapses on its own). Immigrants will then get to work legally, buy their own damn health insurance, and rent or buy a house so they have a real stake in the towns they live in.
Existing law too tough on the immigrants? Get used to it. Somewhere between none and 6 billion, a line will have to be drawn. The decision may as well be tempered by some consideration of the effect on people already living in the U.S.
Need more cheap workers? OK, issue work visas, increase the number of legal immigrants, or start a guest worker program. Whatever. Choose a rule and stick to it. But SOME rule must apply, or we just get more of the same pathological nonsense we have now.
A “Path to Citizenship? If the immigrant wants it, of course. But Citizenship should not be taken lightly. And it should not be given lightly. As you pointed out above, criminals are not welcome. (I understand that the concept of citizenship doesn’t sit well with some folks, mainly one-world collectivists and some Libertarians. But it’s an old concept, and I’ll guarantee that some of us aren’t going to surrender it voluntarily.)
All this boils down to The Rule of Law. It applies to everyone. No exceptions for race, creed, social status or the ability to make Progressives cry. If you don’t like the law, petition your representative or start your own campaign for office. Change it as provided for in the Constitution. Do NOT simply ignore the law. If one set of people get to, so do others, and the result of that will not be pretty.
If you’ve read Smith, Locke, Burke, Jefferson, Rand, and other Enlightenment thinkers, then you know that maintenance of Liberty depends not on anarchy, and not on tyranny, but on a limited set of laws and legitimate Government powers that provide for stability and predictability in life. Protection of property rights (including your own labor), enforcement of contract law, stability and integrity of the currency (oops), protection from fraud, theft, and assault.
Citizens and immigrants alike should be able to expect those rights. Rights that only the rule of law can guarantee.
And if you doubt the concept, ask an American Indian just what happens when you don’t put some controls on the border . . .
//rant off.
Since you put a lot of thought and effort into your comment, I decided to allow it into the record, but I can see that I disagree with you on too many points and in too fundamental way to try to debate the matter. Thanks, but this is the last comment on this thread.