Rather than tell you up front what my position is on
immigration (though given my stand on other
issues, it should be fairly easy to predict), I would like you
to think about this topic from an entirely new, fresh perspective.
You will learn something valuable if you read this webpage. This
page will take you about 24 minutes to read (31 minutes if you
went to a government-run school).
The Immigration issue
defines who we are as Americans. Many writers speak of an "invasion,"
or America "under
siege." Others think they are anti-immigrant but
they are actually opposed to the wasteful government welfare
benefits given to immigrants.
Let me approach the topic from
the point of view of those who are opposed to immigration. I would
agree that:
Immigration policy should not undermine these
three objectives:
Briefly summarized:
- Identity
- The American Identity does not refer to race. America
stands for the idea of "Liberty
Under God." Less government, more personal
responsibility. God-given rights or
freedoms.
- Sovereignty
- The American government has a right to exist only if it
protects this identity, the ideal of "Liberty
Under God." There are those who desire more
government, not less, and their immigration policies are
part of their strategy to destroy American sovereignty and
replace the American form of government with a more
"modern" form, of which the
European Union is a model. They strategically appeal to
anti-immigration groups for support for their plans to
destroy America.
- Economy
- The American Economy has been largely capitalist,
and has created the highest standard of living in human
history. Our immigration policies should recognize the power
of competition in a Free Market.
The policies of the Clinton-Bush-Obama Era are designed to
subvert all three of these goals. Conservatives who want more
federal forces on our borders, along with fences and laws creating
felons out of "good samaritans," are hastening the
"invasion" of an army that
could well be God's instrument of judgment.
Let's look at
the three objectives in more detail:
Preserve the American Identity
If we're facing a judgment, it's because we have repudiated the
original ideals of America, as well as clear Biblical principles.
America's
laws were built on God's Laws: The Ten
Commandments and "The
Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" sum up the whole of
America's foundation: the Bible. The immigration policies of all
the major parties -- including third parties like the
Constitution Party -- ignore America's Biblical foundation. Immigration
is a huge theme in the Bible. You may remember it
from your Sunday School class: Israel emigrated to Egypt during a
famine, had favorable status under one Pharaoh, but was oppressed
by a later Pharaoh "who knew not Joseph," and Israel
became in a sense "illegal aliens" in Egypt. There was a
great Exodus, after which God reminded Israel:
Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens
in Egypt.
Exodus 22:21
The
stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native
among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you
were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD
your God.
Leviticus 19:34
So
show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the
land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:19
So you shall divide this land among
yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. And it will come
about that you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance among
yourselves and among the aliens who stay in your midst,
who bring forth sons in your midst. And they
shall be to you as the native-born among the sons of
Israel; they shall be allotted an inheritance with you among
the tribes of Israel.
Ezekiel 47:21-22
Many more passages could be cited throughout the Bible.
Evangelical treatment of aliens is a major Biblical theme,
and even the Constitution Party misses it! David Chilton, in his
book Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators,
has done a fine job of summarizing
Biblical law on this issue. You probably should read that
link.The
Statue of Liberty expresses the essence
of the American vision. It is a beacon to a world of
socialism, fascism and communism.
A plaque with the text of
"The New Colossus," a sonnet by Emma Lazarus, is
mounted on the inner wall of the pedestal of the Statue of
Liberty. The title of the poem, and the first two lines, refer to
the Colossus
of Rhodes, one of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World. "The Colossus of
Rhodes" represented the thinking of the "New
World Order" of that day, about 300 years before Christ.
America's Statue of Liberty is not about power, or collective
unity arrived at by government coercion.
It is a total repudiation of "the Colossus mentality."
The poem, the statue, and America herself, are an invitation to
the entire world to leave thousands of years of Pharaohs, Caesars,
Czars and Führers in the dustbin of history. In particular, it
invites not just the rich, the powerful, the celebrity, and the
elite to enjoy the benefits of Liberty
in America, but extends an invitation to all the victims and
exiles of tyranny, all those who flee corrupt government and
political oppression. Let Emma's
poem speak to your soul:
Not like the brazen
giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Any
immigration policy which does not have this passionate invitation
beating in its heart is cold, tyrannical, and un-American. If you
were a poor Mexican, living under Mexico's corrupt government,
wouldn't you want to live in America? There is increasing American
indifference to corruption
in other governments, in part because we are indifferent to tyranny
here at home. We increasingly buy into the myth that security
and prosperity come from government restrictions of liberty.
We no longer believe we have any light to offer to those fleeing
the darkness. We close the Golden Door because our own lamp is
unlit.
I've been in the homes of Mexicans which were little
more than sheets of plywood nailed together. If you found yourself
in such a setting, in a nation where the government is in the
hip-pocket of drug cartels, you would take appropriate steps to
move your family to America. What right do I have to keep you
from coming here? On July 9, 1812, President
James Madison (the "Father of the Constitution")
proclaimed a day of prayer,
to be set apart for the devout purposes of rendering the
Sovereign of the Universe and the Benefactor of Mankind the public
homage due to His holy attributes; of acknowledging the
transgressions which might justly provoke the manifestations of
His divine displeasure; of seeking His merciful forgiveness and
His assistance in the great duties of repentance and amendment,
that He would inspire all nations with a
love of justice and of concord and with a reverence for the
unerring precept of our
holy religion to do
to others as they would require that others should do to them.
America was once a Christian nation, but we are not practicing
the precepts of "our holy religion" -- to do unto others
as you would have them do unto you. Our current laws against
immigration make the Statue of Liberty and the precepts of the
Christian religion illegal.
Consider how un-American
fence-loving conservatives are. Central to the American vision is
the idea that God has created all people equally, and given them
unalienable rights to life,
liberty, and property.
Private Property is the lynchpin of American capitalism.
Now consider this map of two properties owned by Jones and Garcia:
The Jones Ranch 
|
The Garcia Ranchero
|
|
 |
Agent
Smith |
|
|
Suppose Jones invites Garcia over to the Jones
Ranch for a Bar-B-Q. Does Smith have a right to tell Garcia
he doesn't have the liberty to cross the boundary separating
his property from Jones'? Does Smith have right to
tell Jones that he doesn't have the liberty to hire Garcia's
son to work on the Jones Ranch? Does Smith have
the right to tell 300 million Americans that they can't have
certain people on their property or hire certain people in their
businesses? Who owns America: Americans, or Smith?
(Substitute "Bush," "Hillary," "Tom
Tancredo," "House Republicans," or any name of
your choice for "Smith".) "Who
owns America" is the fundamental question here. The
answer is: whoever has rights. Whoever has the right
(power) to decide how property is used owns that property. Did God
give unalienable rights over property to human beings like Jones
and Garcia, or to "the country" (whatever
that is), to be administered by
"Smith."
Conservative thinking (border patrols and
fence-building) is based on numerous unBiblical socialist and
collectivist assumptions.
Immigration
Policy Reveals What We AreLet's now look at immigration
from a Capitalist, Free Market perspective:
Promote the American Economy
If our economy is in the tank, it is not because of immigrants. It
is because government confiscates
half of everything Americans produce. It is because we are no
longer a Free Market economy, but a "mixed" socialist
economy. The Soviet Union failed to create the "workers'
paradise" because socialism violates immutable economic laws.
Big
government is immoral. Non-libertarian governments subject
their people to poverty.There
are many people today who believe that immigrants cause poverty.
Free Market economists and statisticians are on the side of the
immigrants, not the fence-builders. Here is a simple explanation
of why.
In 1880 there were 50 million people in America. Ask
the anti-immigrant crowd in 1880 if America could possibly absorb four
times as many people, and they would have said
"absolutely not." But 100 years later, our population
was four times as great (200 million), and the 1980 economy was at
least 100 times larger than the 1880 economy. By 2080 U.S.
population will be 500 million. And if our economy isn't
1000 times larger than it is today, it will be the government's
fault -- and the fault of socialist-thinking anti-immigrant
conservatives, seeking government protection against growth and
change. Christian Capitalism should give us clean, nuclear-powered
cars, genetic engineering should make food almost free, cancer
should be cured, longevity extended, transportation radically
altered ("Beam me up, Scotty!") . . . who can even
imagine the possibilities? And if we have immigrants mowing our
lawns and hammering the nails, the rest of us can develop our
specializations: curing diseases, programming computers,
discovering free energy, and developing the capital infrastructure
that will dramatically increase production and lower prices on
everything. And the next generation of immigrants moves up the
ladder of the division of labor as well, as long as they are not
excluded from gainful employment by federal laws that interfere
with their God-given right to "exercise dominion
over the earth."
Why
America Can Absorb More Immigrants
Do Immigrants
Destroy American Jobs?
Competition benefits everyone,
even the one who is out-competed. Henry Ford out-competed the
horse-and-buggy manufacturers. Obviously we all benefited from
cars, but even the displaced workers in the horse-and-buggy
industry ended up living in a better world. They benefited from
decreased transportation costs, which meant lower prices on
everything they bought. Should the government have protected
"America's valuable horse-and-buggy industry?" Unions
and anti-immigrant forces are competition-phobic. They want their
Big Brother the government to protect them from those mean ol'
competitors. They want THEIR jobs protected
at YOUR expense. Is that a Christian
attitude?
Imagine a factory that employs 1,000 Americans to
produce a product that is sold to one million people for $400.
Imagine now that the owner fires all the Americans to hire illegal
immigrants, projecting that he can cut the price of the product by
10% and increase sales. If you were going to buy this product for
$400, and now discover it at Wal-Mart for $359.95, are you hurt?
Suppose all the displaced Americans at that factory have to find
work elsewhere, and they all take a 10% cut in salary. We can say
they have been hurt. So how do we balance their hurt and your
gain?
We simply do the math.
Since the employees were displaced by illegal immigrants, we'll
assume their salary was $30,000/year. One thousand employees
taking a 10% cut in wages = 1000 x $3000 = $3,000,000. Against
this we weigh the benefits of one million consumers saving 10% on
the $400 product. This is $40 x 1,000,000 = $40,000,000. Last time
I checked, 40 million is greater than 3 million.
Cheap labor is good for the economy.
Cheap labor is good for your wallet. If America is flooded with
cheap labor, and the price of everything you buy is cut by 10%,
then even if everyone's wages fall by 5% (including yours), we're
all still ahead, because our real
wages have increased. Would you rather earn "one
million dollars" a year in an economy where a loaf of bread
is $1,000, or would you rather earn "ten thousand
dollars" a year in an economy where a loaf of bread is a
penny? What you want is more purchasing power, not
just more "dollars." Cheap labor means lower costs for
producers, lower prices for consumers, and that means you
can buy more with what you earn, no matter how many
"dollars" you earn. That means your standard of
living goes up.
There are too many Americans today who
want the government to use coercion and force to protect their
job, even at the expense of all other Americans. This is unethical
socialist selfishness. This anti-immigrant attitude is
un-American. This is "the Colossus mentality."
Most
Americans are ignorant of how capitalism works and why socialism
fails. The Future of Freedom Foundation publishes some excellent
studies on Immigration
Policy. More detailed economic analysis can be found at The
Independent Institute. Finally the work of Julian
Simon is thorough and reliable. All of these sources approach
the immigration issue from a Free Market perspective, which is the
American perspective.
Our favorite defender of laissez-faire
capitalism is Prof. George
Reisman, and especially his treatise, titled simply Capitalism
.
We have excerpted his explanation of the benefits of immigration
and his analysis begins here.
America
stands for the proposition that "Liberty
Under God," not government central planning, is the path
to economic prosperity. Capitalism, not socialism, is capable of
taking advantage of cheap labor, and raises the standard of living
for everyone.
- It may seem as if the Bush Administration is less
conservative, more immigrant-friendly. This is deceptive.
Current proposals by the
Bush Administration, including "guest-worker"
programs, and any other specifics that can be gleaned from the
rhetoric, are designed to create "full
mobility of labor" between Mexico and the United
States.
| Our government elites in and out of the Bush
Administration want a North American economic alliance
that will make the border between the United States and
Mexico as superfluous as the one between Missouri and
Arkansas. (details) |
- This would not be a bad thing in itself, but the Bush plan
involves the creation of a new regional government along
the lines of the
European Union, in which the sovereignty of the United
States is submerged into a new system of government over North
America, and eventually a hemispheric government over the 34
nations of North and South America. Steps in this plan include
the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Security
and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).
