Immigration

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 ...

Freedom of Movement

by Jim Rogers June 1, 2003

...Removing the barriers to the free movement of people, labor, capital, and intellectual capital is what the European Union is all about and what the euro is designed to promote. If you are a member of the European Union, you no longer need a visa or passport for internal travel no more than does a U.S. citizen to go ...

If They Hadn’t Been Breaking the Law, This Wouldn’t Have Happened

by Jacob G. Hornberger May 16, 2003

The federal governments response to the deaths of those 18 illegal Latin American immigrants in South Texas was predictable because its the same response that the feds have made every time such a tragedy has occurred. The governments response: criticism, condemnation, and prosecution of either the immigrant for illegal entry or the transporter of the ...

For Love of the State

by Scott McPherson May 9, 2003

On April 25, the Washington Times ran a front-page story titled, Ashcroft asserts right to hold illegals, Says indefinite detentions aids security. And, with a taste for irony that couldnt possibly have been intentional, the Times ran an op-ed on the same day, by Jerome Cohen of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Jared Genser, president of Freedom Now, titled ...

We Want to Free You . . . but Just Dont Come Here

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 18, 2003

Amidst all the U.S. government outrage over Fidel Castro's tyrannical treatment of Cuban citizens, U.S. officials unfortunately remain steadfastly committed to working with Castro to forcibly repatriate Cuban refugees back into Castro's communist tyranny. For that matter, how many U.S. officials who are now claiming to have had a longtime, heartfelt urge to free the ...

“Immigration Dictatorship”? Logical Flaws and Etymological Faux Pas

by Scott McPherson March 28, 2003

In “Socialism and Immigration,” I compared the anti-immigrant forces of today with the anti-free-trade forces of 19th-century France, as related by the great libertarian Frédéric Bastiat in his essay, “Metaphors.” Their motive is to get people to associate certain scary terms with a target group and let ...

Socialism and Immigration

by Scott McPherson March 7, 2003

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it has become increasingly fashionable and popular to loudly proclaim the dangers, threats, costs, and consequences of immigration. If the constant ranting from editorial pages is any gauge, one would think that virtually every ill our society faces can be laid ...