Immigration and Open Borders.
Issue:
Immigration stands tall as a hot controversy and critical issue in the United States as it has throughout the nation's history for reasons that vary with the times. Today the debate centers primarily on two facets: the unsanctioned influx of immigrants across our southern border with Mexico and the need of business for cheap and plentiful labor.
Deception:
Immigration is described as a serious problem for the United States that must be addressed by fortifying the borders, by placing onerous requirements for permanent resident status on those already here and by the aggressive use of deportation. This is deception.
Reality:
Immigration is both necessary and desirable for the prosperity of the United States (financially and culturally) and can be readily, fairly and humanely managed. There exist three key truths about immigration in the U.S., one of which is absent from the immigration discussion, one of which is rarely addressed and one which tears at the social fabric of our country in both economic and human terms.
Never Discussed: free movement of people.
Whereas money, corporations, jobs, goods and services are mostly free to cross borders, people are not. This is a terrible inequity of our times; it not only keeps people around the globe disadvantaged in their ability to compete and build good lives but confers invaluable advantages upon transnational corporations in their increasing domination and control of markets, labor and governments. The value and dignity of people are placed last in this equation and the toll this takes upon human lives is terrifically high and unjust.
Rarely Addressed: business demands immigrant labor.
Business needs and demands immigration and the government complies. This need is due to many factors but two are especially prominent: the need for the agriculture business to have ready access to inexpensive seasonal temporary workers who will work for wages and under conditions that generally fall well below the standards for U.S. workers, and the need of the technology and science industries for workers who will work for less than United States citizens and who are, in some cases, educated to higher standards than those in place for U.S. citizens. Other industries - such as construction and healthcare - also utilize high numbers of immigrants in their workforce and a large number of private citizens employ immigrant labor as well.
Immigration stands tall as a hot controversy and critical issue in the United States as it has throughout the nation's history for reasons that vary with the times. Today the debate centers primarily on two facets: the unsanctioned influx of immigrants across our southern border with Mexico and the need of business for cheap and plentiful labor.
Deception:
Immigration is described as a serious problem for the United States that must be addressed by fortifying the borders, by placing onerous requirements for permanent resident status on those already here and by the aggressive use of deportation. This is deception.
Reality:
Immigration is both necessary and desirable for the prosperity of the United States (financially and culturally) and can be readily, fairly and humanely managed. There exist three key truths about immigration in the U.S., one of which is absent from the immigration discussion, one of which is rarely addressed and one which tears at the social fabric of our country in both economic and human terms.
Never Discussed: free movement of people.
Whereas money, corporations, jobs, goods and services are mostly free to cross borders, people are not. This is a terrible inequity of our times; it not only keeps people around the globe disadvantaged in their ability to compete and build good lives but confers invaluable advantages upon transnational corporations in their increasing domination and control of markets, labor and governments. The value and dignity of people are placed last in this equation and the toll this takes upon human lives is terrifically high and unjust.
Rarely Addressed: business demands immigrant labor.
Business needs and demands immigration and the government complies. This need is due to many factors but two are especially prominent: the need for the agriculture business to have ready access to inexpensive seasonal temporary workers who will work for wages and under conditions that generally fall well below the standards for U.S. workers, and the need of the technology and science industries for workers who will work for less than United States citizens and who are, in some cases, educated to higher standards than those in place for U.S. citizens. Other industries - such as construction and healthcare - also utilize high numbers of immigrants in their workforce and a large number of private citizens employ immigrant labor as well.
A march by over 1,000,000 people in support of immigration rights in downtown Los Angeles, California on March 25, 2006 - the largest demonstration in California history.
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As an example in the first case, government facilitates the immigration of migrant workers for the agriculture industry by essentially looking the other way. It allows the agriculture industry to transfer many of its costs of growing, harvesting, distributing and selling crops onto a workforce that is without the legal status or legal protection afforded U.S. citizens. They are allowed into the country but are usually denied fair wages, safe working conditions, adequate health care and respect.
As an example in the second case, government facilitates the immigration of skilled workers for the benefit of the technology and science industries through a byzantine system of visas - a system which works to the advantage of industry at the expense of security and certainty for the applicants and at the expense of U.S. citizens who are not adequately trained for the work or who cannot afford to live on salaries oriented to an immigrant workforce. Meanwhile the U.S. fails to sufficiently educate its own people to reduce the pressure from industry to admit foreign workers and at the same time bends to industry demands for cheaper labor. As well, the outsourcing of labor by corporations to foreign countries puts U.S. workers at a disadvantage at home. |
Tearing the Social Fabric:
The United States has a rich history of discrimination against its immigrants, whether it be the Chinese who helped build our western railroads, the Irish who helped build our industries or the Mexicans who grow and harvest our food - or the forced immigrants who labored under inhumane duress in our southern fields as slaves. The discrimination is ugly, mean, at odds with the values of a so-called "Christian" nation and unbecoming of a civilized secular society even as it hinders social and economic growth.
Today, unsanctioned immigration into the U.S. - especially from Mexico - is a convenient scapegoat for much of what ails us as a nation. The reality is the opposite: this immigration is essential to the growth of the U.S. economy - even as we exploit the resources and workforces of other countries at the expense of our own workforce. Immigration to the U.S. from Mexico, for example, is driven by the needs of U.S businesses as well as the inequities between the two countries.
There exists a long history of domination and exploitation of Mexico by the U.S., extending from our theft of vast acreage (today's Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah; parts of Colorado, Oklahoma and Wyoming; and arguably the whole of Texas), to our shameful role in the drug-related violence wracking our southern neighbor, to our psychotic predilection for both tempting and rejecting its people, to our continuing use of Mexican immigrants as a scapegoat for our own problems. This exploitation of Mexico and its immigrants to the U.S. causes tremendous hardship, injustice and expense. The costs to the U.S. of this exploitation is likewise high in terms of domestic social and economic dislocations - yet these are problems that the U.S. has the resources to address fairly.
Resolution:
Building a "Fortress America" using high-tech border security, whether with walls or visa barriers only accomplishes one goal: enriching the corporations that develop and build the security systems and manage the global workforce for their benefit. It will not and cannot stop illegal immigration. People are always more creative than governments in circumventing hard border controls and for this reason: when a government sets standards for security they show their hand as if in a game of poker. Everyone else has the advantage of knowing what it is they must try to best. And the capacity for human ingenuity in this regard is not only boundless but profitable as well.
Building a fortress also exacts a tremendous toll on international relations and cooperation. We must learn how to work with other nations, not just exploit their people and resources. The U.S. has used its power for over two centuries to exploit other nations and peoples and it is not alone among highly-developed nation-states in this regard. The answer to immigration woes is the same as those we have embraced for currency, corporations, goods and services: open the borders. Allow for the free flow of people around our world.
For further detail see "Four Steps to Fixing Immigration" below.
The United States has a rich history of discrimination against its immigrants, whether it be the Chinese who helped build our western railroads, the Irish who helped build our industries or the Mexicans who grow and harvest our food - or the forced immigrants who labored under inhumane duress in our southern fields as slaves. The discrimination is ugly, mean, at odds with the values of a so-called "Christian" nation and unbecoming of a civilized secular society even as it hinders social and economic growth.
Today, unsanctioned immigration into the U.S. - especially from Mexico - is a convenient scapegoat for much of what ails us as a nation. The reality is the opposite: this immigration is essential to the growth of the U.S. economy - even as we exploit the resources and workforces of other countries at the expense of our own workforce. Immigration to the U.S. from Mexico, for example, is driven by the needs of U.S businesses as well as the inequities between the two countries.
There exists a long history of domination and exploitation of Mexico by the U.S., extending from our theft of vast acreage (today's Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah; parts of Colorado, Oklahoma and Wyoming; and arguably the whole of Texas), to our shameful role in the drug-related violence wracking our southern neighbor, to our psychotic predilection for both tempting and rejecting its people, to our continuing use of Mexican immigrants as a scapegoat for our own problems. This exploitation of Mexico and its immigrants to the U.S. causes tremendous hardship, injustice and expense. The costs to the U.S. of this exploitation is likewise high in terms of domestic social and economic dislocations - yet these are problems that the U.S. has the resources to address fairly.
Resolution:
Building a "Fortress America" using high-tech border security, whether with walls or visa barriers only accomplishes one goal: enriching the corporations that develop and build the security systems and manage the global workforce for their benefit. It will not and cannot stop illegal immigration. People are always more creative than governments in circumventing hard border controls and for this reason: when a government sets standards for security they show their hand as if in a game of poker. Everyone else has the advantage of knowing what it is they must try to best. And the capacity for human ingenuity in this regard is not only boundless but profitable as well.
Building a fortress also exacts a tremendous toll on international relations and cooperation. We must learn how to work with other nations, not just exploit their people and resources. The U.S. has used its power for over two centuries to exploit other nations and peoples and it is not alone among highly-developed nation-states in this regard. The answer to immigration woes is the same as those we have embraced for currency, corporations, goods and services: open the borders. Allow for the free flow of people around our world.
For further detail see "Four Steps to Fixing Immigration" below.
End Note: A Singular World
The day has finally come where we are truly one world on this singular planet. Humans around the globe are interconnected and interdependent to a degree never before witnessed in human history and in ways that are wholly irreversible. Just as the rise of the nation-state supplanted the tribal cultures that had dominated human history for millennium, so has the global community effectively supplanted the nation-state. The U.S., like most countries, is fighting a losing battle in attempting to constrain the free movement of its people - and the people of other lands - across borders.
Just as our war on drugs is an abject failure and causes untollable human misery, so it is with our war on immigration. The only solution to the war on drugs is to stop fighting and instead work with the realities of human desire for - and even dependence on - hallucinogenic and psychotropic substances. Likewise, the only solution to the immigration wars is to open all borders to all people and thereby negate the need for unrealistic and unattainable control. As long as we confer the freedom of cross-border movement on currency, corporations, goods, services and military hardware, so too must we confer this freedom upon humans.
This post is a call for open borders. Anything less than this suppresses human freedom and elevates the rights of governments and corporations above the rights of people. We all exist as one species: human. It is time we live as one.
The day has finally come where we are truly one world on this singular planet. Humans around the globe are interconnected and interdependent to a degree never before witnessed in human history and in ways that are wholly irreversible. Just as the rise of the nation-state supplanted the tribal cultures that had dominated human history for millennium, so has the global community effectively supplanted the nation-state. The U.S., like most countries, is fighting a losing battle in attempting to constrain the free movement of its people - and the people of other lands - across borders.
Just as our war on drugs is an abject failure and causes untollable human misery, so it is with our war on immigration. The only solution to the war on drugs is to stop fighting and instead work with the realities of human desire for - and even dependence on - hallucinogenic and psychotropic substances. Likewise, the only solution to the immigration wars is to open all borders to all people and thereby negate the need for unrealistic and unattainable control. As long as we confer the freedom of cross-border movement on currency, corporations, goods, services and military hardware, so too must we confer this freedom upon humans.
This post is a call for open borders. Anything less than this suppresses human freedom and elevates the rights of governments and corporations above the rights of people. We all exist as one species: human. It is time we live as one.
Four steps to fixing immigration
Step One: Accept U.S. Responsibility for Immigration
The United States must acknowledge and define its needs for foreign workers for all sectors of the economy - especially agriculture and technology - and stop playing with the lives of the immigrant workers we require for prosperity in these sectors. We must provide for their access to, and enjoyment of these opportunities by putting in place the policies and procedures that will allow them welcome entry, habitation and stability. We must also acknowledge the family values that play a primary role in immigration considerations. Families are stronger and contribute more to society when their structure and integrity is respected and facilitated by their community - and this means uniting families, not separating them by use of deportation.
One of the more insidious proposals in the current immigration debate would allow the indefinite - yes, indefinite - detention in federal camps of immigrants arrested by local law enforcement. This is a direct blow to the constitutional rights the U.S. has constitutionally, traditionally and proudly offered all persons on U.S. soil, including the right to a presumption of innocence and a fair and speedy trial.* This proposal also violates the historic federal jurisdiction over immigration control by allowing the participation of local law enforcement, the danger of which has been amply illustrated by the illegal, inhumane and judicially discredited operations of the Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona Sheriff's Department.
*Since the passage of the Patriot Act in 2001, these rights have been violated in the worst way through the indefinite detention of presumed "enemy combatants" at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - detention without charges, trials or basic human rights - a shameful situation that should never be repeated in any area of law enforcement, including immigration.
Step Two: Accept Responsibility for the U.S. Role in Destabilizing Central and South America
The United States must finally and openly acknowledge its key role in the devastating violence, economic instability and political fragility that wracks Mexico and other countries in Central and South America - all due in part to our failure to rationally address the flow of illegal drugs and guns across our borders and our ongoing interference in their sovereign affairs. The U.S. is a major customer for illegal drugs and a major dealer of arms to the world, and we have repeatedly violated the sovereignty of these nations through political, judicial and market interference. These are major factors, if not the largest, responsible for the violence to our south (as well as in our own streets) and for the impetus for immigration to the U.S.
Until the U.S. accepts that drugs are an integral part of the lives of its citizens - as they always have been and always will be - and establishes a legal trade in these substances it will continue to be at war with both its own people and other countries. After learning the lesson of Prohibition - wherein the prohibition of alcohol led to rampant crime and death and the repeal of that prohibition mitigated those problems while raising awareness of the need for treatment and management of alcohol use - we refuse to apply this lesson in the case of other drugs. This in an untenable approach to dealing with drugs and contributes to the problems in other countries that lead to unsanctioned immigration into the U.S.
The U.S. must also address the issue of U.S. arms flowing south into Central and South America. We have enough problems with illegal and unaccounted guns in our own country - we do not need to be exporting them to others. Just as the blood of domestic innocents is on our hands due to our abject failure to control weapons domestically, the blood of innocents abroad is on our hands due to our wanton disregard for the human toll exacted by our export of weaponry.
As for our political, judicial and market interference in these countries: the U.S. has long been addicted to a doctrine that has become antiquated and is resented by the nations on which we have imposed its rule: the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which defined the Americas as a world apart from European intervention yet under the overpowering influence of the U.S. We have abused this doctrine for almost two centuries to interfere with the sovereign rule of our southern neighbors. Just as the U.S. can take credit for the advantages we have conferred upon these nations through this doctrine, we must also take responsibility for the devastating and often fatal impact its abuse by U.S. politicians, political operatives and businesses has made upon their citizens.
Related Essays:
Step Three: Accept Ownership of U.S. Role in Immigration
As a people we need to stop seeing immigrants as the enemy. We are after all, as has been repeated ad nauseum, a nation of immigrants. Our current immigration issues can be calmly and rationally addressed and result in the building of a better country at home and better countries abroad. It is essential that we stop using other humans as the scapegoats for the problems we ourselves have created. The problem is not one of unsanctioned immigrants flooding across our borders; it is a problem of inequities enjoyed and partly fostered by the United States between itself and other lands - and of our own inability to address the resultant pressures in sensible, objective ways.
Step Four: Open the Borders
The United States must work with the nations of the world to address and rectify the inequities caused by the prohibition against the free movement of people across borders. A key factor in the historical growth of the U.S. into a world super-power is due to rulings and legislation which, throughout our history, have increasingly removed barriers to the free movement of goods, services, businesses and people between the states. What we take for granted today - the virtual invisibility of borders and the remarkable cooperation between the states - did not exist in the early decades of our republic. Taking down these barriers to human and capital development built a better country and doing so globally is essential to building a better world.
The United States must acknowledge and define its needs for foreign workers for all sectors of the economy - especially agriculture and technology - and stop playing with the lives of the immigrant workers we require for prosperity in these sectors. We must provide for their access to, and enjoyment of these opportunities by putting in place the policies and procedures that will allow them welcome entry, habitation and stability. We must also acknowledge the family values that play a primary role in immigration considerations. Families are stronger and contribute more to society when their structure and integrity is respected and facilitated by their community - and this means uniting families, not separating them by use of deportation.
One of the more insidious proposals in the current immigration debate would allow the indefinite - yes, indefinite - detention in federal camps of immigrants arrested by local law enforcement. This is a direct blow to the constitutional rights the U.S. has constitutionally, traditionally and proudly offered all persons on U.S. soil, including the right to a presumption of innocence and a fair and speedy trial.* This proposal also violates the historic federal jurisdiction over immigration control by allowing the participation of local law enforcement, the danger of which has been amply illustrated by the illegal, inhumane and judicially discredited operations of the Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona Sheriff's Department.
*Since the passage of the Patriot Act in 2001, these rights have been violated in the worst way through the indefinite detention of presumed "enemy combatants" at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - detention without charges, trials or basic human rights - a shameful situation that should never be repeated in any area of law enforcement, including immigration.
Step Two: Accept Responsibility for the U.S. Role in Destabilizing Central and South America
The United States must finally and openly acknowledge its key role in the devastating violence, economic instability and political fragility that wracks Mexico and other countries in Central and South America - all due in part to our failure to rationally address the flow of illegal drugs and guns across our borders and our ongoing interference in their sovereign affairs. The U.S. is a major customer for illegal drugs and a major dealer of arms to the world, and we have repeatedly violated the sovereignty of these nations through political, judicial and market interference. These are major factors, if not the largest, responsible for the violence to our south (as well as in our own streets) and for the impetus for immigration to the U.S.
Until the U.S. accepts that drugs are an integral part of the lives of its citizens - as they always have been and always will be - and establishes a legal trade in these substances it will continue to be at war with both its own people and other countries. After learning the lesson of Prohibition - wherein the prohibition of alcohol led to rampant crime and death and the repeal of that prohibition mitigated those problems while raising awareness of the need for treatment and management of alcohol use - we refuse to apply this lesson in the case of other drugs. This in an untenable approach to dealing with drugs and contributes to the problems in other countries that lead to unsanctioned immigration into the U.S.
The U.S. must also address the issue of U.S. arms flowing south into Central and South America. We have enough problems with illegal and unaccounted guns in our own country - we do not need to be exporting them to others. Just as the blood of domestic innocents is on our hands due to our abject failure to control weapons domestically, the blood of innocents abroad is on our hands due to our wanton disregard for the human toll exacted by our export of weaponry.
As for our political, judicial and market interference in these countries: the U.S. has long been addicted to a doctrine that has become antiquated and is resented by the nations on which we have imposed its rule: the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which defined the Americas as a world apart from European intervention yet under the overpowering influence of the U.S. We have abused this doctrine for almost two centuries to interfere with the sovereign rule of our southern neighbors. Just as the U.S. can take credit for the advantages we have conferred upon these nations through this doctrine, we must also take responsibility for the devastating and often fatal impact its abuse by U.S. politicians, political operatives and businesses has made upon their citizens.
Related Essays:
Step Three: Accept Ownership of U.S. Role in Immigration
As a people we need to stop seeing immigrants as the enemy. We are after all, as has been repeated ad nauseum, a nation of immigrants. Our current immigration issues can be calmly and rationally addressed and result in the building of a better country at home and better countries abroad. It is essential that we stop using other humans as the scapegoats for the problems we ourselves have created. The problem is not one of unsanctioned immigrants flooding across our borders; it is a problem of inequities enjoyed and partly fostered by the United States between itself and other lands - and of our own inability to address the resultant pressures in sensible, objective ways.
Step Four: Open the Borders
The United States must work with the nations of the world to address and rectify the inequities caused by the prohibition against the free movement of people across borders. A key factor in the historical growth of the U.S. into a world super-power is due to rulings and legislation which, throughout our history, have increasingly removed barriers to the free movement of goods, services, businesses and people between the states. What we take for granted today - the virtual invisibility of borders and the remarkable cooperation between the states - did not exist in the early decades of our republic. Taking down these barriers to human and capital development built a better country and doing so globally is essential to building a better world.