Leftists are tripping over themselves in their attempt to blame President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric for one of the nation’s latest killing sprees, the one in El Paso, where the killer posted an online screed complaining about the “invasion” of illegal immigrants. Of course, the left is having a more difficult time trying to tie Trump’s rhetoric to the simultaneous killing spree in Dayton, given that the killer claimed to be a leftist socialist who, in some bizarre and unexplainable way, convinced himself that he was advancing socialism by engaging in the random killing of people in Dayton.
Longtime readers of my blog posts are familiar with my thesis: That when a government engages in a 30-year-long, continuous, ongoing, never-ending killing spree of people overseas, one that places no value on the lives of foreigners, my thesis is that that is inevitably going to trigger bizarre, dysfunctional behavior here at home within people, especially ones who are off-kilter mentally, behavior that mirrors what the government is doing to people overseas. Of course, I can’t prove my thesis, but I remain more convinced than ever that it’s true. I just don’t think it’s a coincidence that the U.S. Empire’s deadly and destructive escapades in the Middle East and Afghanistan after it lost (temporarily) its official Cold War enemy, the Soviet Union, have been accompanied by a constant, never-ending spate of killing sprees here at home.
But let’s stick with immigration and the killing spree in El Paso. I think everyone agrees that the killer was motivated by his desire to do something about the “invasion” of illegal immigrants against which Trump, the conservative movement, and the Tea Party movement have long been exclaiming. Trump and his Trumpistas have repeatedly told us about the murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and robbers who are coming to get us as part of this “invasion” and how their version of a Berlin Wall would “keep us safe.”
If you accept this right-wing rhetoric at face value, the killer’s killing spree in El Paso is entirely logical. Let’s imagine that a combination of Russian, Chinese, North Korean, and Iranian armies were suddenly to invade the United States in a surprise attack. It is a fundamental principle of self-defense that the U.S. government and the American people would have the right, both morally and legally, to defend ourselves against this invasion. That defense would naturally encompass the killing of foreign troops in the United States.
Let’s assume that the United States prevailed in the war and ousted our country of all foreign troops. Would U.S. prosecutors round up Americans who had shot and killed foreign troops and charge them with murder? Of course not. If they did, the courts would hold that American citizens were acting in self-defense when they shot and killed the invaders.
For many years, I have received emails and letters from conservatives and Tea Party members exclaiming against the illegal immigrant “invasion of America.” I have given them this advice: Do not go out and start killing any of these “invaders.” You will be indicted and prosecuted for murder. At your trial, the judge will not permit you to argue self-defense against foreign invaders. You will be convicted and sentenced to death or a long prison term.
As far as I know, all of the conservatives and Tea Party members to whom I have given that advice have taken it. That’s because deep down they know that illegal immigrants are not “invaders” at all. An invasion is what the U.S. Empire did to Iraq. Troops, guns, shootings, bombings, missiles, death, destruction, Abu Ghraib, torture, sex abuse, indefinite detention, violent raids, occupation, and the other actions that U.S. forces took in Iraq, a faraway country that never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so.
By crossing the border, especially in search of work to sustain or improve their lives, Illegal immigrants, on the other hand, are engaged in entirely peaceful conduct. Crossing a political border doesn’t violate anyone’s rights, especially when it’s done to get a job, and sustain and improve one’s life through labor. What illegal immigrants are doing, as compared to what U.S. imperial forces did in Iraq, is pursuing happiness, which is a fundamental, God-given right, as enunciated in the Declaration of independence, which Americans celebrated last month.
So, does that mean that the left is correct in blaming Trump and his right-wing, anti-immigrant rhetoric for the killing spree in El Paso? No, it’s not Trump’s rhetoric that is the root of the problem. Instead, it is the system of immigration controls itself, which leftists continue to support, that is the root of the problem. Sure, Trump’s rhetoric might inflame the situation but keep in mind that his rhetoric is part of his efforts to enforce the immigration system that both left and right have brought into existence and that they both support.
In fact, let’s get one thing clear: Conservatives and Tea Party members often claim that the left favors open borders. That’s a lie and they know it. The left believes in America’s system of immigration controls as much as the right does. Their only difference is over how to enforce this system. For example, the left favors a Berlin Fence. The right favors a Berlin Wall. Big deal.
It is only we libertarians who believe in open borders. Under a system of open borders, people would be free to cross back and forth at regular crossing points, such as international bridges. No more deaths from thirst or dehydration from crossing over lonely deserts in the Southwest, in the backs of 18-wheelers, or swimming across the Rio Grande with children. The flows of people would be regulated by the natural laws of supply and demand, just as they are between the respective states.
Would there still be anti-immigrant prejudice and rhetoric? Of course, just as there was during the 100 years that the United States was based on a system of open immigration. There will always be prejudices. But the natural harmonies that come with freedom and free markets would expose how ridiculous such prejudices were and would diffuse the power they have under a system of controlled borders. Given that open borders would produce a society of peace, harmony, prosperity, and liberty, people would be less likely to pay much attention to the bigots. The mass killings based on an immigrant “invasion” would disappear.
Thus, given their support of America’s system of immigration controls, the left bears as much responsibility for all this death and mayhem as the right. Consider: While they accuse Trump of being a bigot because he wants to prevent Hispanics from coming to the United States, they support a system that prevents any number of Hispanics from freely coming to the United States. In other words, the dispute between the right and the left is over numbers. Trump wants to keep out more Hispanics. The left wants to keep out less Hispanics. Big deal! In principle, their message to off-kilter anti-immigrant killers is the same: Too many Hispanics coming to America is a bad thing.
That’s not to say, of course, that the left is the only side that suffers from hypocrisy in the immigration controversy. Conservatives and Tea Party types love to say that they favor “free enterprise and limited government” and oppose “socialism.” Yet, given that a system of immigration controls is based on the socialist principle of central planning, that controlling the movements of people violates the principles of “free enterprise,” and that an immigration police state, which immigration controls bring into existence, violate the principles of limited government, it is clear that the right has its own problem with hypocrisy.
The only system that will bring peace, prosperity, harmony, normality, and liberty to our land is one genuinely based on freedom, free markets, and limited government. That system is one based on open borders — i.e., free trade and open immigration. It’s the only system that will bring an end to the death, destruction, and loss of liberty that comes with the socialist system of immigration controls, a system that both the left and right have unfortunately foisted on America. The sooner the American people come to this realization, the better off all of us will be.