Immigration Reform

One of my readers wrote to ask why I haven't posted about the immigration reform. Fair question, but I'll warn you: it's complicated.

First of all, I have very little real understanding of what the immigration bill actually says -- and the contents are still very much in flux. Worse, I suspect that none of our Senators and Representatives really understand it either. The thing is hundreds of pages long (you can see it here on N.Z. Bear's wonderful site dedicated to this bill).

What little I do understand about the immigration reform bill, I don't like -- but probably not for the reasons you might guess. What I don't like is that it's basically more of the same stuff we're doing now, which I object to. My underlying thoughts:

• I believe, on principle, than anyone with a desire to become an American should be allowed to come to America to pursue that dream. Many people don't know it, but America had no restrictions at all on immigration until the late 1800s -- and significant restrictions were first put in place in the 1930s. I believe we've lost something important by pursuing the route of immigration control.
  
  
• I believe that immigrants who fail to become good Americans should be deported. By "become a good American", I mean assimilation and permanent residence, learning our common language (English, as some seem not to know), and in general, good behavior. All of these are necessarily subjective assessments, and I believe we should not shrink from making them. In other words, rather than "defend the border", I believe we should cull our prospective citizens to get rid of the bad apples.
  
  
• I believe that immigrants should make it on their own steam, or with the help of their sponsors -- not with government assistance. I believe this is an essential filter mechanism to ensure that America attracts good, productive new citizens -- not welfare recipients.
  
  
• I believe that the notion of "defending the borders" is absurd on first principles. Particularly deceptive is the idea that we must defend the borders to defend against terrorism. The very idea that any conceivable border defense (whether practical or not) would inhibit terrorist attacks on the U.S. is laughable on its face -- the only way we could accomplish that is if we walled ourselves off from the world, and allowed no travelers in or out. Putting up a fence on the Mexican border will simply cause the people who so desperately want to come to the U.S. to come in through some other means -- and there will always be some other means.
  

So there's my slightly radical viewpoint. It seems clear that the immigration reform bill makes no move in this direction, so I do not support it.