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.
Rather than tell you straight out 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). 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,
- 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 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 Are
Let'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).
