Immigration Enforcement — A Jobs Program

National Review Online/ The Corner ^ | 12/03/09 | Mark Krikorian

[Delacon]

When I linked to a USA Today story the other day about Americans elbowing illegals out of the way for day-labor jobs, under my headline of "And Yet, We Still Haven't Suspended Immigration," one reader replied, "Yah, because protectionism is clearly the answer for our economic woes." This betrayed a widespread misconception about immigration and trade, one that's important to keep in mind as the president unveils the political theater production called his "Jobs Summit."

Restricting immigration is fundamentally different from restricting trade in two ways, one theoretical, one practical. First, people are not things — in addition to being labor inputs, they also happen to be people. This isn't a new insight, but one that apparently requires repeating. The general principle, unrelated to immigration, was articulated by Peter Drucker when, in The Practice of Management, he recommended "consideration of the human resource as human beings having, unlike any other resource, personality, citizenship, control over whether they work, how much and how well . . ." Henry Ford is said to have expressed the businessman's frustration at this, asking "Why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands, they come with a person attached?"

In the immigration context, Teddy Roosevelt made the same point: "Never under any condition should this nation look at an immigrant as primarily a labor unit." Economists have drawn the same conclusion: Henry Simons, the pioneer advocate of the benefits of free-market economics at the University of Chicago, wrote in 1948 that "to insist that a free trade program is logically or practically incomplete without free migration is either disingenuous or stupid. Free trade may and should raise living standards everywhere. . . . Free immigration would level standards, perhaps without raising them anywhere." Likewise, libertarian economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe has written that "free trade and restricted immigration are not only perfectly consistent, but even mutually reinforcing policies."

The practical problem with the equation of immigration with trade is that most immigrants don't work in sectors subject to imports — immigration means importing the workers themselves rather than the products of their work. Construction, food service, building cleaning and maintenance, taxi driving, etc., you just can't import the service or outsource the work.

So, specifically at a time of high unemployment when the economy is losing jobs, enforcement of immigration law is an immediate, low-cost jobs program — at least for Americans and legal immigrants, who are the only ones our government is authorized to be concerned about. There are twice as many unemployed Americans as there are employed illegal aliens, and while jobs aren't just lollipops you take away from one person and give to another, vigorous enforcement could easily open up a quarter-million or half-million jobs held by illegal aliens in no time.

This why Rep. Lamar Smith, ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, writes today in Politico that:

With so many Americans' livelihoods on the line, now is the time for the administration to stand up for citizens and legal immigrants. Now is the time for the president to direct that immigration laws be enforced. When the jobs stolen by illegal immigrants are recovered for legal workers, our true national recovery can begin.

[Delacon]

I would love to hear any responses from the pro immigration RLC/libertarian freepers out there.

[Delacon]

ping

[AuntB]

BTT

[Delacon]

Hey AuntB. Long time no see. Haven’t been posting much on immigration lately. Shame on me. I like this line from Krikorian’s post:

“Henry Simons, the pioneer advocate of the benefits of free-market economics at the University of Chicago, wrote in 1948 that “to insist that a free trade program is logically or practically incomplete without free migration is either disingenuous or stupid. Free trade may and should raise living standards everywhere. . . . Free immigration would level standards, perhaps without raising them anywhere.””

[AuntB]

Always good to see you, Delacon. Amnesty is the next Obama agenda.

[org.whodat]

With so many Americans' livelihoods on the line, now is the time for the administration to stand up for citizens and legal immigrants. Now is the time for the president to direct that immigration laws be enforced. When the jobs stolen by illegal immigrants are recovered for legal workers, our true national recovery can begin.

A sorry POS from the chamber of commerce was on S-spain this morning defending business that hire "people who would do work Americans would not do". The POS was to sorry to say illegals.

[org.whodat]

With so many Americans' livelihoods on the line, now is the time for the administration to stand up for citizens and legal immigrants. Now is the time for the president to direct that immigration laws be enforced. When the jobs stolen by illegal immigrants are recovered for legal workers, our true national recovery can begin.

A sorry POS from the chamber of commerce was on S-spain this morning defending business that hire "people who would do work Americans would not do". The POS was to sorry to say illegals.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Anytime someone says “isolationist” or “protectionist”....they are pretty much “Anti-American”

And such is the mentality of the Pro-Illegal Alien crowd. To whine “Isolationist” or “Protectionist” whenever someone mentions fighting Illegal Alienism just reeks of treason, The Free Trade Globalist mentality in both the GOP and DNC is killing America

[UCFRoadWarrior]

A sorry POS from the chamber of commerce was on S-spain this morning defending business that hire “people who would do work Americans would not do”. The POS was to sorry to say illegals.

---

I agree...the pandering of the US Chamber of Commerce towards Illegal Aliens is sickening

The US Chamber of Commerce is to American Economics....like Al Gore is to Scientific Research....

[jimt]

The libertarian answer is that you can’t have a socialist state and open borders simultaneously. Those who advocate otherwise (like ‘rats) are nuts.

The Libertarian party’s platform can only be taken as a whole. Taking single pieces by themselves, like open borders, won’t work, and conscious Libetarians know it.

[jimt]

BTW, I’m for deporting ALL illegals and their anchor babies forthwith.

[samadams2000]

Anyone that takes a truck load back over the border should be paid 10K. 6 months of hard work should just about do it.

[gubamyster]

ping

[Delacon]

I dunno, thats like saying you can only take the republican party’s platform as a whole. While most of us cons are registered republicans, I doubt you’d find many that accept the republican platform as a whole. The platform is a hodgepodge of compromises between numerous sub groups with conflicting interests. I doubt that the libertarian party is much different, and if it is THAT unified, marching in lockstep, then that doesnt say much for the libertarian party does it? The “freedom of the individual as paramount” party is all of the exact same mind? I don’t think so.

[jimt]

I obviously didn’t express it well.

Let me try again. The Libertarians’ desire for open borders is a desire for individual freedom for everybody. But it cannot work in our current politically correct, socialist utopia. It’s suicide on a national basis in our current situation.

To make an extreme example, one of the old Libertarian jokes is “So do you support heroin in vending machines in grade schools ?” The correct Libertarian answer is “Yes.”

It’s only logical in the context of a truly libertarian society. There would be no government schools - or compulsory schooling. All schools would be paid for by parents or by charity. All schools would be chosen by the child’s parents ? What parent would put their child in a school that had heroin in vending machines ? What charity would support it ? Maybe 1 in a million. And that nut would be feeding it to their child anyway.

That nut would also be subject to a system of law based on restitution. He or she could find themselves working effectively as a slave for that child (or anyone else damaged) for many years. If any case at all could be made for damage incurred to the child or an outsider.

Nobody says everybody belonging to the LP has to accept every platform plank. What I’m saying is the platform planks make sense in the context of a libertarian society, not our current one.

At least it was so when I was Harris County (Houston) Chair and we used to discuss how any tax collectors could dance on the head of a pin (/sarcasm).

[Kimberly GG]

Don’t hold you’re breath waiting. They are here, they just don’t reveal themselves very often.

[Delacon]

“Don’t hold you’re breath waiting. They are here, they just don’t reveal themselves very often”.

Thats a shame. For as much as I disagree with libertarians, I heed the words of Pres. Reagan: “If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is”.

Never has that quote been more important than today. Now on immigration and national defense, libertarians and I usually part ways. Thats why I wanted to hear from them. I hope weigh in.