Open Borders Work, Part 2 by Philippe LeGrain April 1, 2008 Part 1 | Part 2 Opponents of immigration marshal a battery of objections to opening up borders. They claim that it would cost jobs, pose a huge welfare burden, and threaten Americans’ way of life — even their security. Yet these fears are mostly nonsense. Critics argue that low-skilled immigration is harmful because the newcomers are poorer and ...
Government-Made Crises by Jacob G. Hornberger March 17, 2008 A fascinating aspect of government intervention is how it induces people (1) to get embroiled in the crisis environment that the intervention produces, and (2) to feel a vested interest in coming up with a solution to the crisis. Consider price controls, an intervention that governments traditionally turn to in response to their own debasement of the currency. As prices ...
Independent Migrants, Welfare, and the Law by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2008 It’s a sad sign of the times that political candidates — even those who profess to be proponents of limited government — feel they have to one-up their rivals in showing how hard they would crack down on people who have the gall to come to the United States without the government’s permission. “Border security” is the odious buzzword ...
Open Borders Work, Part 1 by Philippe LeGrain March 1, 2008 Part 1 | Part 2 Imagine you were born in a part of the country where farming was no longer productive, or in a rust-belt town where the local factories had closed. You hear of good jobs in California and Colorado, so you decide to move. How would you feel if, when you arrived at the state ...
We Need Immigrants by George Leef February 1, 2008 Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them by Philippe Legrain (Princeton, 2007); 374 pages; $27.95. Many years ago, I agreed to be a guest on a talk-radio program originating in California. The host wanted a speaker who would defend immigration. After I explained my position, the host opened the call-in lines, and for the ...
More Victims of Immigration Control by Sheldon Richman January 18, 2008 Consistent advocates of individual liberty often point out that government restrictions on free immigration violate the rights of people not born in the United States. Not only are they denied their freedom to move and improve their lot in life, but if they make it into the United States, they are ...
Immigration: Global Warming on the Right by Scott McPherson November 2, 2007 Honest debate on issues such as national health care, free trade, energy policy, and environmental controls is nearly impossible today. Something wicked this way comes, claims the Left, and it trumps any quaint old arguments about freedom and individual initiative. You see, man-made global warming is wreaking havoc on ...
Rational Irrationality and Bad Policies by George Leef October 1, 2007 The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies by Bryan Caplan (Princeton University Press, 2007); 276 pages; $29.95. For many years, the standard account of the tendency for democratic governments to adopt perverse policies (restrictions on free trade, for ...
How Grandma Got Legal by Mae M. Ngai August 1, 2007 “Made in America — by immigrants” and “We too have a dream” read signs at the May 1 marches across the country. By invoking an American ideal, today’s newcomers are staking their claim as the latest generation of nation-builders. But their critics object to this appeal to history; they ...
Immigration Tyranny by Jacob G. Hornberger July 20, 2007 A popular argument among advocates of immigration controls is that a nation has a “right” to control its borders. The argument is based on the supposed “right” of the U.S. government to station gendarmes along its international borders, including on privately owned land, to prevent people from coming into ...
Gilchrist, O’Reilly, and the Cowardice Factor by Jacob G. Hornberger April 9, 2007 A debate on immigration controls vs. open borders was recently scheduled to take place at Pomona College in California. On one side of the debate was a man named Jim Gilchrist, a conservative who founded the “Minuteman Project,” an organization devoted to helping the U.S. Border Patrol arrest, punish, ...
Immigration Policy Reveals What We Are by Sheldon Richman March 25, 2007 The new compromise immigration bill is drawing lots of flak, not least from conservatives who object to granting amnesty to millions of so-called illegal aliens in the country. (I prefer to think of them as independent migrants.) Here I have to agree with the conservatives. The illegals shouldn’t be granted ...