By Carl Milsted, Jr.

Illegal immigration is a big issue these days. It’s all over the news and blogosphere these days, and many a candidate is campaigning on this issue.

But frankly, it’s all is a sham. Illegal immigration is not the real issue. If we wanted to make sure that all immigrants were duly registered and vetted we could do so at any time. All we have to do is up the legal immigration quotas – or get rid of the quotas altogether. 99+% of illegal immigrants are here illegally not because they are criminals, terrorists or otherwise ineligible; they came in because the quotas are filled.

The real issue is total immigration. Those who talk of illegal immigration are dancing around the subject just as those who call for handgun registration are veiling their true agenda of taking away private handguns.
It’s time to stop pretending and start addressing this issue head on. It is an important issue and much more difficult than many will admit.

From the libertarian perspective the answer seems simple: open the gates. Immigration restrictions are violations of human liberty. Furthermore, to catch people who have already gotten past the border guards requires having some form of national identification, something we freedom-lovers abhor.

But would unlimited immigration produce a net gain in liberty? What happens to America’s traditions of liberty should we import millions of people from a culture which has little to no tradition of freedom or democracy? What happens if we let in 100 million Chinese, who have a tradition of emperors and warlords going back thousands of years? What if we let in a large population of Middle Easterners who wish to impose Sharia law upon the world? (Look at what is happening in Europe. Countries famous for their sexual freedoms are being flooded by people who make Pat Robertson look like a feminist.)

Liberals are presented with similar dilemmas. On one hand, allowing the world’s poor to migrate to richer lands to find better work is an extremely progressive act. Money sent home by migrant workers is far less corrupting than foreign aid sent by governments.

However, unlimited immigration is not compatible with a modern welfare state. When millions of people are lined up willing to work for less than a “living wage,” the market minimum wage drops as well. Many native born will find the dole preferable to work unless the dole is dropped accordingly. And if we allow unlimited immigrants to receive social services along with the native born, the treasury will be drained as much of the world lines up for largesse. Finally, are we ready to accept suburban sprawl that includes shanty towns?

And what happens to the environment when our population doubles? All of you environmentalists who desire to level off the world’s population face a dilemma. If Culture A opts to stabilize its population in order to enjoy a pristine environment while Culture B opts to keep breeding as if the planet is still empty, Culture B will eventually overwhelm Culture A. The only way to stop this Darwinian process is containment – immigration restrictions. (The late science fiction author C.M. Kornbluth dealt with this dilemma from many angles in his stories. The implications are disturbing and hard to refute.)

So what should our immigration policy be?

Who knows? Both sides of the debate have good arguments. Thus we need to have this debate – out in the open. Furthermore, people on both sides of the debate need to be a bit more humble; there is too much vilification going on by both sides.

As for me, I hope to unask the question. The best long term solution is to spread freedom, prosperity and enlightenment to the rest of the world. Globalism is good. I love NAFTA despite its flaws. I love the facts that China and India are entering the Industrial Era, that democracy is becoming the world norm, that the Internet is making censorship next to impossible. The best solution to excessive immigration is foreign investment and support of organizations like the International Society for Individual Liberty. We have no immigration problems from rich and free countries like Canada. Let’s make the rest of the world rich and free.

Carl Milsted is a senior editor for The Free Liberal.