Here is something I don’t get. A lot of conservatives have very strong feelings about illegal aliens. Border protection is one of those major sectors of conservative thinking that I generally disagree with as a libertarian. I get some aspects of the argument, but some of it seems a little hypocritical to me, and some of it just seems too emotional rather than rational, which means I am not going to go for it. Even some very outspoken persons who are vocally leaving the Republican party and, at least to some extent, voicing support for the Libertarian party, or at least for being libertarian, still are hanging on to some strong opinions on border security, including a border wall.

Now granted, there were some of the more honest voices protesting the cost and dangerous levels of power granted by congress when the border wall idea was passed. Congress not only approved a border wall, they suspended legal restrictions so that it could be built, and approved a massive budget for the wall. Suspension of laws for a government project is a dangerous thing, laws are for governments too. So there was a little outcry about that, but the approval of the wall was applauded.

The thing is, even aside from the fact that we cannot really afford it, there are two massive dangers in a border wall.
1) This country was made great by opening its borders to all those who sought freedom. Those who wanted to join those in the land of opportunity were welcome. When that began to change, so did our growth. This is part of the hypocrisy I mentioned. Conservatives, like libertarians, hail the days of the industrial revolution and talk about the factors that made it possible. Certainly a non-oppressive government made that possible, our constitution, and the ability of the people to largely self-govern with very little tax impacting their resources, allowing people to build up resources and expanding the middle class. The positive effect of open borders, however, cannot be denied, although most conservatives gloss over that or use the “it’s a different time” argument, touting the same nonsense about overpopulation and so forth that many statists talk about when pressing for population controls on a global scale. A fresh supply of workers who are coming here specifically to work and to work their way up and out of the class they are stuck in keeps the economy healthy. An excess of workers weeds out the lazy ones. Protectionism only makes a society lazy. Dependency on closed borders to maintain jobs is the same as dependency on government safety nets for retirement. It breeds a lack of discipline, and someone out there is paying for it, and it always comes back and bites you. The market will find an equilibrium, believe in the market.

2) The way our government is progressing, and the way our economic system is being destroyed, it would not surprise me to see as much emigration as immigration. Those with resources, talent, brains, education, skills, etc. may soon seek life elsewhere. This would be seen by our government as bad, especially as our government becomes more socialist. Socialism depends on having a pool of resources and talent to drain. It requires the cooperation of the productive. It requires the sacrifice of those with ability. If those with ability leave, then the system fails. A socialist government wishing to maintain power and maintain their system might decided to restrict the flow of emigration. It would not be the first time a wall built in the name of defense was used as a prison wall. I am not interested in giving the government a method to keep us here. Sound paranoid? Take a look around, take a look at what our government has done to restrict freedom and damage the economy just in the last decade, and tell me again if I am paranoid.

Now, I understand the argument that people should be obeying the law of the land they seek opportunity in, but when the law is bad, should it still be obeyed? I know a lot of conservatives that don’t feel bad at all about revolting against the tax code, yet they use the legality argument against illegal aliens? The laws need to be changed. They are protectionist, and they are bad for the economy as a whole. To reduce the restrictions on immigration down to just making sure they are not already criminals seeking a new place to perpetrate violence, or enemies of this country would be all that is needed. Anyone who is unwilling to have that sort of a check done on them is likely here nefariously. Anything further or any costs other than that are restrictive and should be done away with.

So the only argument left is that immigrants cost us money, they drain our system with health care costs, etc. The thing is, they only drain they put on the taxpayers is the drain imposed by our own government. We need to clean our own house, not restrict the immigration. If our government is handing out taxpayer dollars to aliens, then we need to stop our government from doing that. Stopping the immigrants instead of the government is like cutting production to reduce costs, rather than finding ways to be more efficient. Any company that does that will fail. If we go after the immigrants for the mistakes of our government, then we only hurt ourselves.

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