Immigration

By Mark W. Stroberg

Should we have open borders?

Many reasons have been presented by those who fear immigrants for imposing legal restrictions on immigration, particularly immigration by Hispanics and other darker-skinned people. All of these reasons do not stand up to muster when looked at rationally and objectively. I will deal with three of the most common ones here.

1.) Immigrants are polluting our culture.

The problem with this statement is that there is no single American culture. There are, in fact, 280 million different cultures in this country, as there are that many people to experience American culture. It would be absurd to say that Texas has the same culture as New York City, or even to say that West Texas has the same culture as East Texas. No individual or group of individuals has the right to use government to force a particular aspect of their culture on everyone.

2.) Immigrants take jobs from American citizens and lower their wages.

There is no such thing as a fixed pool of jobs from which to take employment. When immigrants are employed by Americans, they produce wealth. Some of this wealth is retained by the employer and can be used to produce more jobs or pay higher wages to existing employees. Some of this wealth is paid to the immigrant, who then spends it, increasing demand for goods and services provided by other Americans, thus also increasing employment and wages in the general population.

3.) Immigrants consume government services and are just here to "get on the dole."

One form of tyranny should never be used to justify another form of tyranny. The welfare state is a tyrannical system. So are legal restrictions on the immigration of peaceful people. The fact that immigrants consume government benefits is a reason to abolish the welfare state, not to restrict immigration.

If elected, I will sponsor and support legislation ending legal restrictions on immigration by peaceful people.