The Market Fundamentalist

Even those who claim to be strict Constitutionalists like sadly, Ron Paul or the Independent American Party do not seem to have actually read the Constitution when it comes to immigration. Certainly, Congressman Paul wants to end birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, and that is worth considering. However, what about the main body of the Constitution, ie Art 1 sec 8? That is the part of the Constitution that is most important ( far more important than the Preamble, or the Bill of Rights), but how many actually read it?

The Federal Government is ONLY given authority over naturalization (ie the process of becoming a citizen) in Art 1 sec 8 of the US Constitution. The Supreme Ct tried to rationalize the first federal law on immigration, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1875 (in those days Congress didn’t bother with PC Titles to laws) under the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations” but eventually gave up. That dog didn’t hunt because immigration is NOT commerce, in the sense of manufacturing or agriculture. It is people, people seeking a better life. The Supreme Ct had to admit there is no constitutional basis for federal regulation of immigration. It is an “incident of sovereignty”.

Sovereignty is a loophole large enough to drive an oil tanker through. It goes back to the Days of Monarchy, which we supposedly overthrew. Those who believe in limited government cannot have it both ways, a state that can do what it wants because it is sovereign, or a state that can only do what it is empowered by the Constitution to do.

There is a BIG DIFFERENCE between immigration for work and immigration to become a citizen. The Democrats want to see all immigrants as potential voters, while the Republicans want to see them as potential workers. The historical truth is that many people just come to America to work, and have no interest in being citizens, and it has always been so. Even in the days of the clipper ships, when it took weeks or months to travel between Europe and America, many if not most immigrants just came to the US to work and then went back to their own country. Until we can entangle that Gordian Knot, immigration reform will be impossible. We need a bracero style worker program, that admits as many to the country to work as the market will take, with supply and demand for labor being the main criteria. People who come here to work must be free to change jobs, since keeping them locked into a sponsor/worker drone legal trap was the main problem with the original bracero programs.

Speaking of Gordian Knots, the other major issues on immigration today relate to the Drug War and the Welfare State. It is useless to speak of immigration reform without ending the drug war and the welfare state. The violence on the Mexican Border has to do with the US attitude that it is better to have brown people killing each other than to have white middle class teenagers doing pot and cocaine. Until that American Exceptionalism ends, there will be no meaningful immigration reform.

Every welfare state tries (unsuccessfully) to limit both IMMIGRATION and EMIGRATION. The US is making it harder to emigrate, with draconian taxes on expatriation. This is similar to what we see in Europe. If we want to continue to be a free country, we have to end the welfare state, not expand it. And recognize that the welfare state includes public education.

Returning immigration policy to the states would also return it to the people. Some libertarians like Hans Herman Hoppe have reputations as anti immigration, but the main part of what they write indicates that the problem will be better solved by property rights solutions, rather than government based solutions. After all, the death of the Arizona rancher, and illegal immigration spillover that has caused destruction of private property on the border are the main causes for the immigration backlash. People respect property rights, because that is what they have invested their lives in. Property rights can help solve the problem, which is a government caused problem. More private property rights, not less, should be the goal of immigration reform.

Blaming the federal government for the immigration problem is counterproductive in the historical context of the states giving up their powers to the feds on this issue in the first place. The states should first blame themselves for not keeping their authority over immigration to themselves, and instead ceding their powers to the federal government, which as usual has made a monolithic mess.