[img]1640|left|||no_popup[/img]As conservatives expand a vibrant country for free people, they should revisit the arguments of Milton Friedman, who outlined unique insights on immigration. By integrating the values of the free-market economist, they can turn five years of stunning gridlock on this issue into winning compromise.
The paradox of illegal immigration contrasts the current problems to one hundred years ago. For decades, immigrants entered this country, got a health checkup, passed a security clearance, filed paperwork, receive passports, and became U.S. citizens. Until 1914, no one in the United States complained about an immigration problem. Today, there is nothing but uproar and race-baiting over this issue. What happened? The welfare state was born, with its growing entitlement burden. Citizens, born or naturalized, can take advantage of these subsidies, along with a growing class of dependents who have not received adequate training and preparation to get out and work.
Ironically enough, Friedman claimed that illegal Mexican immigration is good because people who come into the United States illegally do not qualify for those entitlements. They will migrate to jobs most Americans refuse to take. They provide work that helps businesses. They prefer to live here with its opportunities rather than in Mexico as citizens, cursed with poverty and danger.
Huge Differences Between U.S. and Mexico
Critics will charge that the United States is forcing Mexicans to accept a low subsistence level. Responding to one student who felt that Mexican immigrants were saddled with choosing between bad and worse, Friedman pointed out that the lack of capital, lack of free markets and the rule of law in their home country induces them to seek a better life elsewhere. Immigrants come to California because they are looking for a better life. Working in the fields of Central California is exceptional compared to living in the failed welfare-warfare states south of the Rio Grande.
No one should condemn immigrants with no opportunities by expecting the state to provide them the same level of life native Californians expect for themselves. Just as one generation improved its economic standing over time, migrant workers, legally established, can do the same. The arrogant elitism that shamefully drives our political class to pave the way for some into this country will only hurt the state and the immigrant communities more.
Of his many insights on the subject, Milton Friedman's pithy remark on the immigration deserves the greatest attention:
“It is one thing to have free immigration to jobs. It is another thing to have free immigration to welfare. You can't have both.”
If the United States insists on a welfare state, the federal government is inviting more dysfunctional illegal immigration. The fence issue is dead on arrival as well. It will do nothing to stop the raiding of federal dollars nor prevent immigrants looking for a better life.
No Access to Public Schools
One Republican, retired Texas Congressman and former Presidential candidate Ron Paul, famously denounced our government for stationing more forces along the Afghani-Pakistani border than along the United States-Mexico border. Like Friedman, Paul attacks the overgenerous public subsidies. Hospitals can be charitable to individuals who come into this country and need care, but illegal immigrants should not have access to our public schools. Even Mexico requires enrollees to prove citizenship.
Congressman Paul has advocated getting rid of the birthright law in the Fourteenth Amendment. Passed originally to secure the civil rights of recently enfranchised African Americans, the law has permitted individuals to cross the border and give birth to their children on American soil, thus conferring American citizenship. Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid originally advocated reforming this provision.
Libertarian journalist John Stossel has pressed for open borders, but not with the welfare state. His colleagues in one forum suggested that immigrants who receive a college education with their student visas should also receive a green card. Attack the entitlement programs, and 90 percent of the argument would be gone about illegal immigration, they emphasized.
Beyond the extended arguments above, other reforms will encourage legal immigration while protecting our citizens, both born and naturalized. Deny benefits to immigrants (and provide a pathway to independence for citizens) and deport those who commit crimes. End the outrageous policy of sanctuary cities. Stop with the political correctness that refuses to hold every person living here to the rule of law. There is a solution to the illegal immigration problem that is conservative without being craven or uncaring to PC interests or identity politics. Conservatives, Republicans must heed Friedman on this issue. Attack the entitlements, not the people. Demand more border patrols (not a fence), and Congress will be able to craft a bipartisan and humane solution to this neglected, lingering issue.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a writer and blogger on issues both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A lifelong resident of Southern California, he currently lives in Torrance. He may be contacted at arthurschaper@hotmail.com, aschaper1.blogspot.com and at asheisministries.blogspot.com. Also see waxmanwatch.blogspot.com.
