09/14/2006
Congressman Ron Paul, who is more or less the only libertarian member of Congress, has an article on Lewrockwell.com, (which has been sound on immigration, but has been neglecting it lately) called Immigration Reform in 2006?He writes
The American people want something done about illegal immigration now — not next year. All sides in the immigration debate agree that the current, “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” policy cannot continue. That’s why I am joining several of my colleagues in demanding that the Senate vote this month on a border security bill already passed by the House earlier this year. I truly believe border security is the most important issue for millions of Americans.
Representative Paul is notoriously a man of principle, as the following story illustrates:
The third "excuse" is the "Ron Paul exemption." One day then-Speaker Newt Gingrich called on all House Republicans to band together on a budget vote, even though it was a messy compromise that spent too much money. Everyone was expected to go along — except Ron Paul of Texas. Other conservatives wanted to know what it would take to get a "Ron Paul exemption" for themselves. The answer was to have a consistent voting record against all spending — even in your home district. There have been no additional exemptions passed out.[McCain’s Big Backers By Grover Norquist,The American Spectator, 12/99]
If Ron Paul votes for something, it’s because he believes it’s in the best interests of the United States.
Representative Paul’s suggested immigration reform program looks like this:
Liberty Magazine has three articles on immigration, the cover headline is "Immigration: Yes, No, and Maybe."
From Vdare.com’s point of view, the No essay is pretty good, [The Fallacy of Open Immigration, by Stephen Cox]and the Maybe essay is a call for immigration that’s good for America, not bad. The Yes essay is the usual stuff.
Famous libertarian columnist Vin Suprynowicz had an article in July the Las Vegas Review-Journal, called Enforce immigration laws, don’t 'reform' them [July 16, 2006, Login required here | cached version]
We can’t even get the federal government to stop enforcing their absurd marijuana laws when we so direct them by majority vote. So, if they "have to enforce all the laws," why in hell won’t they enforce sensible immigration laws, currently on the books, that have overwhelming public support?
I think that various friends of liberty are realizing that the net effect of mass immigration is to make the United States less free.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.