I Celebrated Christmas in a Detention Center by Jacob G. Hornberger March 10, 2006 Some 30 years ago, I celebrated Christmas in a detention center outside my hometown of Laredo, Texas. The center was entirely devoted to holding illegal aliens, almost all of whom were from Mexico. Before I share this experience with you, I need to place the situation in a larger context. If this background context, however, begins to bore you, ...
Government Perpetuates the Underclass by Sheldon Richman January 25, 2006 Sunday’s New York Times ran a depressing story about a new study showing that day laborers, most of whom are “illegal aliens,” are often stiffed by employers. Of course, they’re already working in dangerous low-paid construction jobs. The Times reported, “Forty-nine percent of those interviewed said that in the previous two ...
Socialism and Empire, Not Immigration, Are Destroying America by Jacob G. Hornberger May 20, 2005 A friend recently sent me an article written a couple of years ago entitled “How to Destroy America,” which provided an account of a Washington, D.C., “immigration-overpopulation conference filled to capacity by many of America’s finest minds and leaders.” According to the article, Richard D. Lamm, former governor ...
Minuteman Project Is a Fraud by Sheldon Richman May 4, 2005 If people who make up the Minuteman Project really want to do something for their country, they should devote their energies to getting rid of the stifling welfare state. Aside from all the good that would do for citizens, it would also ensure that anyone coming here from a ...
Are Illegal Immigrants Criminals? Not! by Ken Schoolland March 1, 2005 I hear it from some of the nicest people one would ever meet. Some dear friends of mine, whom I respect very much, say that all illegal immigrants are criminals because they broke the laws that control who may come into this country. And since these immigrants are criminals, we don’t want that kind of person here. Such accusations confuse ...
Why No Indictment for Bernard Kerik? by Jacob G. Hornberger December 15, 2004 Amidst all the hubbub over Bernard Kerik’s decision to remove himself from consideration as director of Homeland Security owing to his reported hiring of an illegal-immigrant nanny, no one, including the press, seems to be asking an important question: Why aren’t the feds seeking a criminal indictment against ...
Men Without a Country by James Castagnera October 22, 2004 A 19th-century writer, Edward Everett Hale, once published a story called “The Man without a Country.” The protagonist is Philip Nolan, a young U.S. Army officer who unwisely deserted to join the ill-fated effort of Aaron Burr to establish an independent empire west of the Mississippi. In Hale’s ...
In Defense of Open Immigration by Anthony Gregory October 1, 2004 Immigration is one of the most difficult and divisive issues for freedom lovers. Many principled libertarians and champions of a free society believe in government restrictions on immigration, either for their own sake or as an interim measure so long as the United States has welfare programs that are presumed to attract immigrants, who then become net recipients of ...
Bush Worker Plan Betrays American Ideals by Sheldon Richman January 9, 2004 In proposing a temporary worker program, President Bush promised to reassess “the standard of knowledge in the current citizenship test… must ensure that new citizens know…the ideals that have shaped our history.” Maybe he should also look at the standard of knowledge for presidents. If we use the test ...
Human Smuggling Is Morally Good by Scott McPherson December 19, 2003 A great deal of moral criticism is leveled worldwide at the often brutal and unsavory business of human smuggling. Western leaders such as President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair regularly condemn the practice, especially when the deplorable conditions suffered by illegal immigrants in transit are exposed. In ...
Assimilation’s the Problem by Jeffrey A. Singer October 24, 2003 This article was originally published in the October 20, 2003 edition of the East Valley Tribune. The outcry grows louder in this time of heightened national security concerns. State budget crunches, high taxes, and recession-caused job losses make the issue more acute. Hardly a day goes by without some call for ...
Let the Chips Fall by Scott McPherson September 1, 2003 According to the August 11 Washington Times, in a story titled “How visa program robs U.S. technology workers of their jobs,” American computer programmers are finding it harder and harder to stay employed because of the “unintended consequences of the nation’s non-immigrant visa program — particularly the L-1 ...