What is the moral case for unlimited immigration?

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Friday, December 28. 2018

What is the moral case for unlimited immigration?

Moral Confusion About Immigration

Interesting, but immigration is a politico-socio-economic issue more than a moral one, isn't it? An issue for the people to decide.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 14:16 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0)

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"The founders of our nation did not merely wax poetic about the virtues of liberty;"

That's right, they did say more. They said exactly who and what they were creating the United States for: "to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."

Notice they did NOT say that they were creating the U.S. for everybody on the planet "yearning to breathe free." They could have said that, but they didn't. They had spent years, and literally risked everything they had, fighting an expensive and deadly war and they had finally obtained the freedom they sought. The great treasure that they had fought and sacrificed and died to bequeath to us, their posterity, does NOT belong to the entire world, and it never did and never will.

That is not to say that other people don't deserve liberty. But if they want it, they need to do more than just show up in our country and demand it from us -- along with jobs, welfare, "free" medical care, food, education, etc. Liberty is a great thing, but it's not free, any more than all the benefits we provide to illegal aliens are free. And there's certainly no "liberty" in millions of American citizens being forced to pay taxes (and/or be buried under trillions in public debt) just so our government can provide "free" benefits to millions of illegal aliens.

If foreigners want liberty, then they should fight for it in their own countries. They have no right to come here and demand that we provide liberty -- or anything else -- to them.

#1 AP on 2018-12-28 15:59 (Reply)

You cannot have open borders and a massive welfare state like the US currently has, not to mention very lax immigration enforcement. Illegals should not be allowed to collect government benefits paid for by citizens and legal immigrants. Our activists judges and executive branch bureaucracy have created a bunch of perverse incentives that encourage and reward illegal immigration.

#2 GhostRider2001 on 2018-12-28 16:51 (Reply)

They certainly have done that.

#2.1 JC on 2018-12-28 17:13 (Reply)

Of course it is a moral judgement. All judgements at the bottom are moral judgments. Who should I invite into my house? Family? mostly but not that pervert uncle or klepto sister. Friends? yeah, but not that drug user or moocher friend. Strangers? yeah, but only those that I called (vetted) to fix the plumbing or clean the carpets, but only if I am home to watch them. The stranger that knocks in the middle of the night? Probably not, unless I am armed.

Who should I vote for/support? The candidate that will do the job Right to protect me and my future.

What should I buy? Those things I need for my good sustenance and good pleasure.

What is good science? That which is honest and true and improves living.

What is good business? That which is honest product and fair value. Not corrupted and poisoned.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

#3 JP Blickenstaff on 2018-12-28 19:39 (Reply)

If the literal destruction of a nation isn't a moral issue, then none exist.

#4 ccoffer on 2018-12-28 19:40 (Reply)

There are really two issues when it comes to illegal immigration. The first is financial: Each illegal immigrant costs the U.S. taxpayer $72,000 dollars. That money is supposed to be used to care for one's own family. Not strangers.

The second issue is cultural. In order to become an American, one must learn tens of thousands of cultural cues. That where heritage, and mental health come from. For example, when I say that we are crossing the Rubicon, I expect people to know what I mean. The same goes for art, history, philosophy, theology, etc.

Mexicans will never become Americans, nor do they intend to try. That's why they must be expelled; lock, stock, and barrel.

#5 Ron B Liebermann on 2018-12-28 21:33 (Reply)

There are other factors in this discussion. Have our leaders/politicians actually sold out the country? That is are they themselves allowing massive legal and illegal immigration intentionally to harm citizens and steal their power and rights? Various NGO's and even shadow groups are acting to increase immigration and their motives are not favorable to the citizens. This has been going on for about 50 years and it is a conspiracy to change the country and to enrich themselves in the process. The losers are Americans and their children. This is intentional and may well be treasonous.

#6 GoneWithTheWind on 2018-12-28 23:48 (Reply)

I am, by nature, an "open borders" Libertarian.

BUT - and this is a huge BUT - open borders CANNOT coexist with a massive welfare state. And since we already HAVE a massive welfare state, we cannot have "open borders".

I'd love to eliminate the welfare state, but I cannot think of a way to do that. The welfare state is too big, too intrusive, too persistent. It can only be rooted out through a second Revolution, and a new Constitution that has a lot more penalty clauses built in.

#7 Ken Mitchell (Link) on 2018-12-29 00:14 (Reply)

Do you keep your front door open to just anyone? The problem with "open borders" is not that you may or may not think it is a good idea, the problem is that if we have that everyone will suffer not just the fools who do not understand the need for protected borders.

#7.1 Anon on 2018-12-29 10:27 (Reply)

Remember Zero Population Growth, when the moral imperative was to protect the environment by limiting population. Our moral and intellectual superiors claimed that an ecosystem can only sustain a limited amount of degradation, and that there is a point of no return from which the ecosystem cannot recover. Why can't these people go to Canada and Russia; countries that are underpopulated?

#8 Exasperated (Link) on 2018-12-29 06:40 (Reply)

I have very mixed feelings about this. Migration is in our DNA. For example, we now know that the population of Britain was replaced at least twice since the glaciers retreated.
I have read that there are 4 billion+ people on the planet who depend on subsistence agriculture. Can they all come here? Why not? Also why the selective accommodation to Central Americans at the expense of others word wide? These decision and policies are inevitably arbitrary.
Who is responsible for the migrants plight? In Mexico, the influx of industrial factory farms, against whom they could not compete, displaced many farmers, costing them their livelihoods and setting them on the move.

#9 Exasperated (Link) on 2018-12-29 06:55 (Reply)

Just as an aside. The migration patterns of Europe do not parallel today's migrations; the Neolithic and Bronze age migrations carried more advanced economies/technologies with them. The Early European farmers brought agriculture and displaced the Hunter Gatherers, and the Central Asian steppe peoples (Indo Europenas likely) brought horses, wagons, metallurgy, and lactose tolerance, displacing large swaths of the EEFs . In other words, the opposite of today's patterns.

#9.1 Exasperated on 2018-12-29 07:19 (Reply)

"People are tired of having their compassion weaponized and used against them."
Sats Glenn Reynolds (quoting something I wrote yesterday).
Posted by Ann Althouse at 6:25 AM

I think it is something more like burn out.

#10 FromtheAlthouseBlog (Link) on 2018-12-29 08:19 (Reply)

Where is the confusion? Even heaven has a border and an angel at the gate. If someone is morally challenged by unlimited immigration, they need only ask themselves, " Whose job would Jesus steal?"

#11 Delmar Jackson (Link) on 2018-12-29 11:07 (Reply)

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Friday, December 28. 2018

What is the moral case for unlimited immigration?