Keep the Borders Open (February 2002)

This is no doubt in my mind that closing borders to innocent human beings is one of the greatest evils of our time. Closed borders lead to people justifying cruelty to other humans whose only crime is that they seek to better themselves without harming others. People rhetorically say that they are illegal to justify their inhumanity. But if the government were to pass a law that all blonde people had to move to a desert camp, would one be justified in one's arrogant cruelty to those blondes who who ignored the ruling by saying that they were illegals. These illegals have not certainly not broken any libertarian law, but those who harass them are breaking the libertarian rule that one cannot infringe on the rights of others who do not violate your property rights.

The ridiculous argument that some pseudo-libertarians make, that crossing a border violates someone's property rights, ignores the reality that in any workable society there must be access routes from any available private property. This can either be an easement or a public route. Lack of access to one's property would be a gross violation of individual who wished to use that property. Of course, such public access routes exist at all of the borders, they are called highways. The border patrol's ridiculous assignment is to filter out individuals depending on nothing more than where they were born or to whom they were married.

Furthermore, it is silly to oppose a totalitarian state while being a proponent of totalitarian borders. If a nation becomes oppressive, should the citizens of that nation be condemned to die? How will the lies of the state be refuted if citizens are not free to travel and see the truth? How will one know who is a foreigner, if all citizens and legal residents are not required to carry identification? How will one have a limited state without the massive state apparatus necessary to block the traffic in individuals? How can citizens who misplace their papers avoid be deported by the state?

Proponents of closed borders have always wanted to oppress those who were less fortunate than themselves. They want an un-level playing field, a territorial monopoly, which is enforced by the government and they want you to pay for it twice: In higher prices because of the higher cost of their labor versus immigrant labor and because of the cost of enforcement, which is paid for by your tax dollars.