Proponents of America’s system of immigration controls never mention their support of what comes with this system that they support — an immigration police state. That’s because they don’t want to be known as proponents of a police state. They want to be known only as proponents of immigration controls.
But an immigration police state comes with a system of immigration controls, just as thunder comes with lightning. They are inseparable. That’s because an immigration police state is necessary to ensure that foreigners do not illegally circumvent the system of immigration controls that proponents of this system support.
Of course, as we all know, the immigration police state along the U.S.-Mexico border has never worked. There have always been millions of people who have successfully circumvented the police-state measures and entered the United States anyway. They continue to do so today.
So, what do the proponents of immigration controls say about the massive failure of their system? Do they give up on their system? Of course not! Instead, they simply make the police state more tyrannical and more oppressive. That’s how, over time, we have ended up with an immigration police state that includes such tyrannical and oppressive measures as warrantless searches of farms and ranches within 100 miles of the border, highway checkpoints, roving Border Patrol checkpoints, boarding of Greyhound buses to check people’s papers, violent raids on American businesses, and the criminalization of hiring, transporting, harboring, or helping illegal immigrants. And let’s not forget the Berlin Wall that is still being constructed along the border as well as the troops that are being sent to the border to enforce the immigration police state. The ultimate police-state measure will be the full militarization of the border, just like North Korea has.
Faced with the failure of the federal immigration system, the Texas state government has enacted a slew of new immigration police-state measures that are intended to finally — finally! — bring an end to the decades-old, ongoing, never-ending immigration crisis. These measures include authorizing Texas law-enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration laws and allowing state judges to deport illegal immigrants. Of course, this will mean that the immigration police state will now extend far beyond 100 miles from the border.
Will it work? Of course not. That’s because there will always be foreign citizens who will be seeking to save their lives or improve their lives, even if it means risking their lives in the process. The fact is that economic conditions are so good in the United States, compared to other countries, that people are willing to take the chance of being arrested and deported or even killed in the process. If the day ever comes when the United States is hit with a severe economic depression, the immigration crisis will dissipate. That’s because foreigners will have less incentive to risk their lives to come here.
There is an important point to keep in mind about America’s decades-old, ongoing, never-ending immigration crisis: It is caused by America’s system of immigration controls. This is what proponents of immigration controls have a difficult time accepting. That’s because this system is a socialist system. It is a socialist system because it is based on the core socialist principle of central planning. As the economist Ludwig von Mises pointed out, socialist central planning produces “planned chaos.” Can you think of a better term for America’s decades-old, ongoing, never-ending immigration crisis?
There is but one solution to America’s immigration crisis. That solution entails eradicating the cause of the crisis. Since the cause of the crisis is America’s system of immigration controls, that means that the only solution is to eradicate America’s system of immigration controls.
In other words, the only solution to America’s decades-old, ongoing, never-ending immigration crisis is freedom and free markets. That necessarily means the eradication of the Border Patrol, Immigration Service, the immigration police state (both federal and state), and all restrictions on the free movements of goods, services, and people across borders.
I repeat: Freedom and free markets are the only solution to America’s decades-old, ongoing, never-ending immigration morass. Expanding America’s immigration police state will only make the situation worse, both in terms of people’s well-being but especially with respect to liberty.