One of the most fascinating phenomena that I have experienced in my lifetime is the fierce, unwavering commitment among so many Americans, including some libertarians, to America’s system of immigration controls. For most of my life, I have scratched my head in befuddlement over the fact that there are still people — lots of people — who continue to think that somehow government officials are finally — finally! — going to make this system work.
The newest example, of course, is the concertina wire that the state of Texas is placing in the Rio Grande. After more than 80 years of immigration police-state failure to resolve the perpetual, ongoing, never-ending immigration crisis, the new hope is that by cutting up and possibly even killing some migrants swimming across the river, the concertina wire will finally — finally! — bring an end to the crisis. It’s not going to happen.
Younger Americans might well think that the immigration crisis is something new and, therefore, still have hope that it can be made to work. Older Americans don’t have that excuse because we have lived with a continuous, never-ending immigration crisis for all of our lives.
I grew up on farm on the Rio Grande outside Laredo, Texas. We hired illegal immigrants, who lived with us there on our farm. At that time, it wasn’t illegal to hire them. The Border Patrol would come onto our farm without a warrant, arrest our workers, and deport them. The Border Patrol would do the same to other farms and ranches on or near the border.
When travelers drove north on IH35 toward San Antonio, they would encounter an immigration checkpoint about 40 miles north of Laredo. There were also roving Border Patrol checkpoints, where Border Patrol agents would stop cars at random and search them. I myself was subjected to one of these when I was in high school.
This was back in the 1960s! When I returned to Laredo to practice law in 1975, I immediately made an appointment with the local federal judge to ask him to appoint me to represent illegal immigrants for free. I told him that I wanted to challenge the constitutionality of the entire immigration police state on grounds of unequal treatment under law. He agreed to do so. My early caseload consisted of representing people charged with illegal entry.
The point is this: This immigration crisis has been going on a long time. It is not a new phenomenon. It was there in the 1960s and 1970s. It was there in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. It is still there today, big time.
Throughout those decades, the feds have not stood idly by. Decade after decade, they expanded their immigration police state. For example, they made it illegal for Americans to hire illegal immigrants. They also tremendously expanded the number of Border Patrol agents. They criminalized the transportation, harboring, and caring for illegal immigrants. They began boarding Greyhound buses and demanding to see people’s papers. They partially constructed a Berlin Wall. They are now placing concertina wire in the Rio Grande in the hope of cutting up and possibly killing migrants.
None of it has worked. Remember: the aim of America’s immigration-control system and the immigration police state that enforces it is to stop the illegal entry of migrants into the United States. I repeat: None of the police-state measures has succeeded in achieving the overall goal of immigration controls.
So, the obvious question arises: Why are so many people so fiercely committed to supporting this system? That will always be one of the most mystifying phenomena in my lifetime. I just cannot understand it. Why remain fiercely committed to a system that obviously is a failure?
What’s also fascinating about the immigration issue is the deep anger — even rage — that afflicts so many Americans on this issue. I think it can be called “failure rage.” It’s much like road rage. Over the years, I have concluded that the anger and rage stem from the deep frustration that people experience over the failure of their system to work. They want so desperately for their system to work that they simply will not permit themselves to consider the fact that their system has never worked and, more important, the fact that it is incapable of working.
Over the years, I naturally have asked myself the following question: Is there any argument that will cause proponents of immigration controls to see that their system has never worked and, more important, that it is incapable of working? If there is such an argument, I haven’t come up with it yet because no matter how many times I have emphasized this point, the proponents of immigration controls become even more fiercely committed to their system — and more frustrated and more angry over the fact that their system isn’t working.
But another question naturally arises: If proponents of immigration controls were to suddenly come to the realization that their system has never worked and, more important, that it is incapable of working, would they then abandon their support of this system or would they instead remain fiercely committed to it, knowing full-well that their system was still causing death, suffering, and a massive violation of private-property rights and civil liberties? My hunch is that many of them would abandon their support of this failed, deadly, and destructive system and would embrace the only system that works and that is capable of working — open borders — i.e., the abolition of the Border Patrol, immigration service, and all restrictions on the free movements of goods, services, and people across borders.
See my next blog post: “Why the Unwavering Commitment to Immigration Socialism?“