I’m not a great fan of Francis Fukuyama’s but he does make some good points in this WSJ op-ed.
But the problem of gangs and drug violence should not be confounded with the behavior of the vast majority of illegal immigrants to the U.S., who by and large are seeking the same thing that every immigrant to America has wanted since the time of the Mayflower: to better their condition and that of their families. They are not criminals in the sense of people who make a living by breaking the law. They would be happy to live legally, but they come from societies in which legal rules were never quite extended to them. They are therefore better described as “informal” rather than “illegal.”
Unless you have open borders you have little choice but to be tough on illegal immigration and in practice that probably entails tough language. Tragically it probably does taint many people unfairly.
TerjeP
26 Jul 10 at 8:10 pm
It’s a rather clumsy straw man argument from Fukuyama as I’m not aware of anyone whose principal objection to open borders is “the problem of gangs and drug violence.”
The problem is that the United States can’t afford to be a life raft for everyone in the world who wants to go there. Sooner or later, the marginal utility of immigration diminishes. Open borders advocates, knowingly or not, are – in the long run – promoting a big government, big taxing statism because that’s the only way the US will cope infrastructurally.
C.L.
26 Jul 10 at 9:00 pm
Notwithstanding the dreams and desires of some of these illegal immigrants no nation can cope with an unregulated influx of hordes of people wanting to realize their hopes and dreams. The manifest problems of unregulated immigration range from health issues which would swamp our already stretched health care system to spiraling prices for life’s basics.
Sid Vicious
26 Jul 10 at 9:29 pm
Open borders advocates, knowingly or not, are – in the long run – promoting a big government, big taxing statism because that’s the only way the US will cope infrastructurally.
The real problem with genuine illegal immigrants is that due to their illegal status they are prevented from participating fully in society because they do not exist at a governmental level. This means they can’t hold a driver’s license, enrol their children in school, pay tax, etc etc.
The real problem with genuine legal immigrants in a welfare state like Australia is that a lot of them never end up paying their own way.
Yobbo
27 Jul 10 at 12:06 am
Which is why we should have a system that asks them to pay something before they come. A paid immigration visa would encourage a process of self selection favour productive immigrants but it would also ensure up front that they make a contribution towards the cost of running the country. It also provides an avenue for illegals to escape their illegality by paying the required fee. I’ve proposed that such a fee should be around $30,000, although I’d still want exemptions for citizens from nations, such as New Zealand, with which we have a free immigration agreement.
TerjeP
27 Jul 10 at 8:33 am
Unless such a system would totally do away with humanitarian migrants it wouldn’t help much, since they are the biggest drain.
Does the LDP propose to withdraw from the UN treaty on refugees when they institute this paid immigration visa?
Yobbo
27 Jul 10 at 3:09 pm