Libertarianism Has Only One Position on Immigration by Jacob G. Hornberger May 19, 2021 REMINDER: The final session of our online Zoom conference "The National Security State and the Kennedy Assassination" is this evening at 7 pm Eastern time. It will consist of a Q&A session on the following topic: the political context of the assassination. Panelists will be conference presenters Jim DiEugenio, Mike Swanson, Jeff Morley, John Newman, Doug Horne, and me. The videos of their talks are in the multimedia section of FFF's website. If you haven't registered for the conference and would like to attend, just register at our conference website and you'll receive an email with a Zoom link. If you have previously registered, you'll receive a link to tonight's session. I hope to see you there for what promises to be a very interesting and enlightening session. *********** It is sometimes claimed that libertarianism encompasses two different positions on immigration. One position is the controlled-borders position, and the other is the open-borders position. That claim, ...
Freedom Fun at FreedomFest This Week by Jacob G. Hornberger July 10, 2023 If you’re going to be at FreedomFest in Memphis this week, I would like to invite you to the two programs I’ll be doing. If you’re still not registered but able to make it as this last minute, you can receive a $50 discount by using the code FUTURE50. My first program: Friday, July 14, at 5:30 pm on the Main Stage in East Hall Open Borders Mock Trial This is certain to be one heckuva hoot. It’s going to be a criminal trial in which the advocates of open borders are being criminally prosecuted. That means me! And also Bryan Caplan, another open-borders advocate. And weirdly, also our criminal-defense attorney, Catherine Bernard! I’ve known Bryan for years and he is a super great guy and also a super-smart guy. He is an economics professor at George Mason University, whose economics department is the premier free-market/Austrian economics departments in ...
Jury Nullification in Memphis! by Jacob G. Hornberger July 17, 2023 As I indicated in my blog post last week, “Freedom Fun at FreedomFest,” I was headed down to Memphis this past week for Mark Skousen’s annual FreedomFest, where I would be criminally prosecuted for the offense of supporting open borders. I had two co-defendants, Bryan Caplan, one of the most brilliant economics professors in the country and the author of the great graphics novel Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration (which I highly recommend buying and reading) and — get this — also our criminal-defense lawyer, Catherine Bernard, who is head of a major law firm in Atlanta named Bernard and Johnson. Yes, you read that right — our criminal-defense lawyer was also in the dock with Bryan and me as a criminal defendant — and representing herself as well as Bryan and me. It was a fascinating trial. The ...
Libertarianism and Immigration Enforcement by Jacob G. Hornberger February 22, 2017 For the past several years, there has been a running debate within the libertarian movement between libertarians who favor government immigration controls and those who favor open borders. As an advocate of open borders, I have never been able to figure out how those libertarians who favor government-controlled borders are able to reconcile their position with the libertarian non-aggression principle, ...
Fallacies of Conservative Immigration Arguments by Jacob G. Hornberger May 24, 2019 Conservatives often use the national-home argument to justify their support of a system of immigration controls. They say that America is a “national home,” one owned and controlled by the U.S. government. As the owner of the “home,” the argument goes, the U.S. government has the “right” to lock the door and determine who to let into its home. ...
Conservatives and Liberals: Immigration Socialists by Jacob G. Hornberger May 11, 2021 Republicans love to accuse Democrats of favoring open borders. That’s partly because Democrats favor granting “amnesty” to immigrants who have been here illegally for a long period of time. Legalizing illegal immigrants, however, is a far cry from open borders. Open borders entails a complete dismantling of American’s immigration-control system, including an abolition of the Border Patrol. ...
Common Misconceptions Among Border-Control Advocates by Jacob G. Hornberger October 16, 2023 A common misconception among proponents of America’s socialist system of immigration controls is that the libertarian position favoring genuine open borders would mean no borders at all. That’s just wrong. Simply because people are free to cross a border doesn’t mean that the border disappears. The border remains, even though people are free to cross it, back and ...
The Madness of the Wall Debate by Gary D. Barnett January 18, 2019 "The Wall was an edifice of fear. On November 9th, it became a place of joy." - Former German President Horst Köhler, Berlin, November 9th 2009 America has become the epitome of divisiveness, one side against the other, both against the middle. This is a malignancy that has grown into mass hatred, and no good can result from such animosity among ...
Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric and the El Paso Killings by Jacob G. Hornberger August 8, 2019 Leftists are tripping over themselves in their attempt to blame President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric for one of the nation’s latest killing sprees, the one in El Paso, where the killer posted an online screed complaining about the “invasion” of illegal immigrants. Of course, the left is having a more difficult time trying to tie Trump’s rhetoric to the simultaneous ...
Death, Suffering, and an Immigration Police State by Jacob G. Hornberger October 16, 2018 Ever since the libertarian movement began attracting conservatives, the movement has grown by leaps and bounds. Not surprisingly, some of these conservatives have come with baggage consisting of conservative positions that some of them have simply been unable to let go of. Rather than simply accept the fact that their conservative views are contrary to those of the movement ...
Pope Francis and the U.S. Welfare-Warfare State by Jacob G. Hornberger September 22, 2015 Maybe — just maybe — Pope Francis’s visit to the United States will cause American Catholics and, for that matter, American Protestants (and maybe also Americans Jews, Muslims, and atheists) to reexamine some of their long-held views — views that are contrary to principles enunciated by Jesus Christ. No, I’m not referring to abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, or celibacy for ...
An Open Border in My Hometown by Jacob G. Hornberger July 30, 2010 I grew up in Laredo, Texas, a border town that no doubt causes no small degree of consternation to those who lament Mexican culture in the United States. I’d estimate that when I was growing up, about 95 percent of Laredoans were of Mexican descent. When Laredoans were summoned for jury duty, I’d estimate that about 20 percent of every ...
