Good Texas Common Sense
A series of articles concerning what the new government of the Republic of Texas should be and do, what the Constitution for the Republic of Texas should be and say, and the philosophical (common sense) reasons behind these statements.
Copyright at Common Law 1996, Donald Dale Henson, sui juris. This article may be reproduced and distributed using any media as long as the article, the author's name, and this copyright notice remain together and unchanged.
Article 2
Immigration
by Donald Dale Henson, sui
juris
The government of the United States and the governments of most other nations as well spend an enormous amount of resources attempting to control illegal immigration. Is control of illegal immigration necessary or desirable? Let's see if we can draw any conclusions.
If we are to control illegal immigration, we must define it and if there is illegal immigration there must be legal immigration. So what would we consider to be legal immigration? I think most would agree that immigration of desirable types of people should be legal and conversely immigration of undesirable types of people should be illegal. Now all we have to do is figure out what types of people are desireable and which are undesirable.
Desirable types of people are those with a rugged independence who hate government interference in their lives. Oh, you don't agree? You think that rugged independence is ok but they should be in favor of a strong government? And you over there. You say they should be peaceful people and any suggestion of a criminal character should be disallowed? Well, the point is that everyone has his or her own definition of desireable so how do we decide who is desireable? The only solution is to let some bureaucrats decide. Does anyone think that's a good solution?
Assuming that we have managed to set up a mechanism for deciding which immigration is legal and which is illegal, we must then set up a mechanism to control immigration. This will entail border checkpoints where paperwork is checked and roving patrols along the border to ensure that illegal immigrants don't bypass the checkpoints. It's probably a good idea to have random checkpoints within the nation as well to catch those who do manage to get thru. All this and more is currently in place in the United States so the scenario above is not an outlandish one.
So now we have a mechanism to control illegal immigration. Or do we? How do we tell the difference between an illegal immigrant and a citizen of the nation? Easy. We make everyone carry identification papers. Now if you cannot produce your papers on demand you can be assumed to be an illegal immigrant and arrested.
Does the above sound like a free society to you? It doesn't to me. To me it sounds like a facist police state. Isn't this the very thing we are trying to avoid?
So what happens if we just ignore immigration altogether and let people freely cross the borders? Well, conventional wisdom says that you will be innundated with undesireables from other nations coming in to get a free ride on the backs of taxpaying citizens. But is this true?
First, data shows that the vast majority of immigrants, even illegal ones, in the United States do not go on welfare, accept unemployment, or get free medical care. The data shows that most are hard working individuals who only want a better life for themselves. And the myth that they take jobs away from 'Americans' is also false as the data shows that most either work at jobs most 'Americans' would laugh at or they start their own businesses which has the added advantage of 'creating' jobs for Americans.
Second, immigrants to the Republic of Texas will not be able to get a 'free ride' since the Republic of Texas will not have welfare, unemployment benefits, or free medical care. Everyone, not just illegals, will have to take responsibility for their own lives. So the 'freeloaders' will not only not immigrate to the Republic of Texas, the existing freeloaders in the Republic of Texas will in all likelihood 'immigrate' back north to the United States where they _can_ get a free ride. And if the immigrants to the Republic of Texas are not freeloaders and are, in fact, looking to work hard and better themselves then these are precisely the types of people that we want here. And this is accomplished with no bureaucracy or control structure at all. It just happens naturally.
So. By attempting to control illegal immigration we end up with a facist police state. By allowing free and open borders, we end up with a nation of hard working, freedom loving individuals. Which way would you choose. I know which way I would.
Does this make sense? Good Texas Common Sense?
Copyright at Common Law, West El Paso Information Network, 1996