Yesterday, I wrote about the deaths of 46 immigrants, who died of dehydration in the back of a tractor-trailer in Texas. The immigrants had illegally entered the United States. They were being illegally transported when they died in the back of that tractor-trailer.
As I wrote yesterday, those deaths are a direct consequence of the federal government’s system of immigration controls. If people were free to enter the United States as normal human beings, there wouldn’t be a black market in transportation of illegal immigrants. Under a system of open borders, which we libertarians favor, foreigners would be entering the United States as freely and normally as people cross state borders here within the United States.
Not surprisingly, there are a spate of articles lamenting the deaths of those immigrants. But like similar articles written in response to previous deaths of illegal immigrants who have died in the back of tractor-trailers, the people doing the lamenting just don’t get it. They continue to believe that the answer to these deaths lies in reforming the federal government’s immigration-control system.
For example, there was an article in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times by Times columnist Jean Guerrero. She laments the deaths of those immigrants. What is her solution? Reform! She writes: “There are non-deadly and far more effective alternatives to reducing migrant crossings, such as legalizing immigrants without documents in the U.S. so they can sustainably support their relatives back home and visit them in those countries without pressure to unite north of the border. Our politicians must consider those alternatives. In the meantime, people will continue to come to the U.S. and they will continue to die because they have no other choice.”
But “legalizing immigrants without documents in the U.S.” is only a band-aid. Legalizing illegal immigrants who are already living here does not alter the law against illegal entry. It would remain illegal for foreigners to enter the United States without official permission. People will continue to come to the United States in search of a better life. They will continue to seek illegal transportation in the back of tractor-trailers. The deaths would continue, along with articles lamenting them.
Over at Common Dreams, a leftist website, there is an article on the Texas deaths by a staff writer named Jake Johnson. He quotes Democrat Congressman Chuy Garcia: “People fleeing violence and poverty deserve a chance at a better life.”
So, what is Garcia’s solution? He says,“We need to end Title 42 and fix our broken immigration system so these unimaginable tragedies stop happening.”
That’s just ludicrous. Title 42 is a Covid-related measure that bars people who are seeking refugee status from entering the United States. Even if it were abolished, it would still be illegal for foreigners to enter the United States without permission. Therefore, the demand for illegal transportation would continue to exist. Moreover, as Garcia undoubtedly knows, there were multiple deaths of immigrants in the backs of tractor-trailers before Covid.
Don’t you just love Garcia’s phrase, “We need to fix our broken immigration system.” I’ve been hearing that nonsense for decades. It is an empty, meaningless bromide. If there was a way to “fix our broken immigration system,” someone would have discovered it by now.
Statists will never fix their “broken” immigration system. There is a simple reason for that. Their system is not “broken.” Instead, it is inherently defective. Something that is broken can conceivably be fixed. Something that is inherently defective cannot be fixed.
Why is their immigration control system inherently defective? Because it is a socialist system. It is based on the concept of central planning, which is a core feature of socialism. As anyone in Cuba, North Korea, or Venezuela can attest, central planning comes with crisis or chaos and even death.
As I pointed out in my article yesterday, there is but one solution to the deaths of immigrants in the backs of tractor-trailers. That solution is open borders. There is actually no other way. No reform of America’s inherently defective immigration-control system will bring an end to America’s culture of immigration death. Reform will only result in more deaths, more lamentations by statists, and more calls for ridiculous and meaningless reform. It is only open borders that will put America on the road toward life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.