I just finished reading an utterly fantastic new book. With the possible exception of The Future of Freedom Foundation’s 1995 book The Case for Free Trade and Open Immigration, this new book is the best book on the issue of immigration I have ever read. It is entitled The Case for Open Borders. The author is John Washington, who has written for The Atlantic, Washington Post, The Nation, The Intercept, and other outlets.
Ever since FFF’s inception in 1989, I have been emphasizing one important point: There is one — and only one — solution to America’s perpetual immigration crisis and morass. That solution is open borders — genuine open borders — not the immigration police state that statists (as well as some libertarians) call “open borders.” Genuine open borders entails the elimination of the Border Patrol, ICE, the immigration police state, and all restrictions on the free movements of goods, services, and people across borders.
Think of the border between Texas and Oklahoma. That’s an open border. No guard station. No highway checkpoints. No Border Patrol. No immigration service. No tariffs. No import duties. No searches of vehicles. No demands to see people’s official identification papers. No detention centers. No refugee camps. Simply the free movements of goods, services, and people across the Texas-Oklahoma border, in both directions. That’s what genuine open borders are.
You will not find a better case for open borders than Washington’s book. If every American were to read his new book — and I certainly hope they do — America could lead the world to open borders — away from a system of perpetual crisis, chaos, death, suffering, kidnapping, rapes, detention centers, refugee centers, a Berlin Wall, concertina wire, and a massive immigration police state — toward a system of peace, tranquility, life, liberty, vitality, and harmony.
Here are some of excerpts from editorial reviews of Washington’s book, as they appear on Amazon:
“A powerful and convincing case for human solidarity and cooperation for which Washington provides a roadmap.”
“The Case for Open Borders offers an accessible and passionate case against border controls.”
“John Washington provides us with an essential evidence based, politically sophisticated, and ethically compelling tool to address one of the most important issues of our time.”
“The Case for Open Borders is an urgently needed and timely appeal for justice for the expanding flows of migrants and refugees falling victim inside a hardened and darkening complex of enforced border walls, perilous waterways, and spirals of razor wire.”
“Perhaps the most profound book you’ll read this year.”
Richard Ebeling and I host John Washington in this week’s Libertarian Angle, which is being posted today. The show is a bit longer than usual but I think you will greatly enjoy watching it.
I’m willing to bet that there are plenty of people who think that the immigration crisis along the border is a recent phenomenon. Not so. It’s been going on for more than 80 years. It’s what can truly be called a “forever crisis.”
For example, in the 1960s, when I was in high school in Laredo, Texas, which is situated on the border, Border Patrol agents would come onto our farm without search warrants and bust our workers, who were illegal immigrants (and the hardest working people I’ve ever seen). In high school, I was also once stopped by the Border Patrol while driving to Corpus Christi for no reason whatsoever except to search my vehicle. That’s how far back this forever immigration crisis goes.
I find it amusing that today’s statists (and, surprisingly, even a few libertarians) refer to the “open border” along the U.S.-Mexico border. Actually, what they are pointing to is the failure of their massive statist police state to seal the border. Think about it: Decade after decade, statists have expanded their immigration police state — hiring more Border Patrol, conducting more warrantless searches and seizures (like on my farm), more intrusive highway checkpoints, the criminalization of hiring, transporting, harboring, and caring for illegal immigrants, a Berlin Wall, and now concertina wire designed to cut people up. None of it has ever worked. And it will never work. But rather than acknowledge the manifest failure of their immigration police state to seal the border, statists blame their police-state “open border.”
I repeat what I have been emphasizing for the last 34 years here at FFF: There is one — and only one — solution to the perpetual immigration morass that statists have foisted upon our land. That solution is open borders. If we continue with the current immigration-control system, we get even more years or decades of perpetual crisis, chaos, death, suffering, Berlin Wall, concertina wire, and a massive immigration police state, all of which violate religious, moral, and sound economic principles. If we go with open borders, we bring an end to all this malevolence, and we go a long way toward restoring liberty, peace, prosperity, morality, harmony, and religious principles to our land.
I highly recommend buying and reading The Case for Open Borders by John Washington, and sharing a link to the book with your family and friends. If any book can bring a positive paradigm shift to our nation and the world, this is it.