A Free-Market Guide to Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

President-elect Donald Trump based much of his campaign on promises to crack down on immigration and carry out mass deportations.

Politically, this was likely a winning issue for Trump after social media exposed millions of Americans to countless reports and videos of foreign nationals getting free cash, free housing, food allowances, and overall special treatment at taxpayer expense. Meanwhile, actual taxpaying Americans endured inflation-fueled price hikes and a worsening economy while being harangued by the smug upper classes about the need to be “welcoming.” Many voters chose to support the candidate who wasn’t in favor of importing a new taxpayer-subsidized underclass.

Because of this, Trump is likely to prioritize delivering at least some of his promised immigration crackdown.

However, one does not need to be an advocate of open borders to have concerns when one hears about a federal law enforcement agency engaging in a “crackdown.” Federal officials don’t exactly have a stellar record when it comes to respecting the property rights of peaceful, law-abiding Americans, even when the purported target is foreigners. The countless violations of the rights of Americans under the Patriot Act and the “war on terror” are examples of this.

On the other hand, many aspects of the proposed Trump crackdown are, one might say, “no-brainers” and have no apparent downside at all. These include cutting off all funding of any kind to migrants, and deporting all foreign nationals with a known criminal record.

Nonetheless, some aspects of Trump’s immigration policy have the potential for fueling further expansion of a federal police state. These include any deportation plan that involves a “drag net” and places peaceful residents under suspicion for no offense other than “looking like” a migrant.

The No-Brainer Solutions

Immigration has long been subsidized in the United States in the sense that there are low barriers to new migrants benefiting from a bevy of social benefit programs. Immigrants who achieve status as refugees or asylees can access welfare programs almost immediately. Even run-of-the-mill legal migrants need only wait five years to begin living off taxpayer-funded benefits.

These subsidization schemes have only grown more aggressive in recent years. It is now well known that many American cities and states—not to mention the federal government—offer “free” cash, housing, food, and more.

This has done much to attract the flood of migrants that has arrived in the US in recent years. Earlier this year, for example, The New York Post reported that the mayor of New York is giving away pre-paid cash cards—each carrying “up to $10,000“— to foreign nationals in New York. Most of these migrants have arrived in New York with no invitation, no employment prospects, and no plan for housing. But most of them plan on staying. And why shouldn’t they? Upon arrival, thousands of them immediately went on the public dole in some way or another, relying on taxpayer-funded shelters, housing programs, and a variety of sources for “free” food. The federal government also provides free transportation to various American communities for many migrants, including 400,000 free riders in 2023 alone.

Reversing this should be seen as “low-hanging fruit” by the Trump administration. Obviously, any and all access to federal dollars should be cut off immediately. This is true for both legal and illegal immigrants. Immigration needs to be a fully private-market process, not a taxpayer-subsidized activity.

Any state or local government that attempts to entice more migrants with social benefits programs should lose all access to federal grants. All federal dollars should be cut off from any government schools that cater to illegal immigrants. Any NGO that attempts to funnel taxpayer dollars to immigrants should be blacklisted from any and all federal grants. These NGOs are still free to offer services to anyone they want—just not with taxpayer dollars.

Many of these programs for putting immigrants on welfare are nowadays facilitated by smart-phone apps. These include the CBP One app which is designed to streamline migrants’ requests for asylum. This, of course, is an attempt to circumvent the normal immigration process and get migrants on social benefits even faster. Obviously, all of these apps should be immediately disabled.

Note that none of this requires any law-enforcement contact with migrants at all. These solutions simply cut off migrants’ access to the hard-earned dollars of taxpayers. The phone apps will no longer work. The free money will no longer materialize to provide free food and housing for migrants. Those migrants who actually have jobs and contribute to the community can continue to do so. Those who relied on stealing from taxpayers will self-deport when the free ride disappears.

The option of immigration—including legal immigration— to the United States must be fully privatized so it is only an option for those with the ability to support themselves economically.

Note that none of this violates anyone’s property rights. No one’s right to travel is limited by cutting off free money for migrants. No one is being prevented from contracting with another private party for employment or housing. People simply are being forced to do all this with their own private property.

Other Laissez-Faire Solutions: No Fast Path to Citizenship

Another key in the equation is limiting access to citizenship. Citizenship is not a property right of any kind, and there is no such thing as a natural right to citizenship in any particular place. Excluding the tiny number of migrants who are genuinely stateless, all foreign nationals arriving in the United States already enjoy the benefits of citizenship somewhere.

Moreover, gaining citizenship in the United States brings with it a variety of economic benefits. It provides permanent access to the welfare state. The granting of citizenship also provides foreign nationals—few of whom renounce their citizenship in their home countries—greater access to US government institutions.

The benefits of citizenship ought to be greatly limited for new immigrants, with a waiting period of at least a decade, or perhaps even twenty years. Again, this does not limit a migrant’s ability to fully exercise his or her property rights.

Birthright citizenship, a “right” invented by a federal judge, should also be abolished.

The Problem with Mass Deportations

Ultimately, when we consider options for limiting migration, while also respecting property rights, self-deportation needs to be the focus. The alternative is to empower the federal government to track down and round up countless US residents, demand “papers, please!” and then deport those without the proper government forms.

Many supporters of mass deportation plans seem to think that federal agents can, through some magical power, identify illegal immigrants on sight. The reality is that immigration status must be determined by an investigation into whether or not a resident has the proper paperwork.

Now, it is true that many illegal immigrants will essentially volunteer for deportation. Such people include criminals who are convicted of real crimes. Clearly, it does not require any sort of drag net to simply deport convicts who have already attracted the attention of authorities. Similarly, in a system that denies taxpayer funded benefits to foreign nationals, immigrants who attempt to collect social benefits would be guilty of fraud, and thus volunteer themselves for deportation. The same would be true of any non-citizen who attempts to vote.

But what about immigrants who remain peaceful, self-supporting, and keep to themselves? The way federal agents have generally identified these people is by harassing residents through internal checkpoints and harassment of people who “look like” immigrants.

For example, one of the great overreaches of federal power—one that is blatantly unconstitutional—is the 100-mile border zone. In 1946, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1946. The law granted immigration agents the authority “to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States.” This power was limited to a “reasonable distance” from the US border. Originally, this “reasonable distance” was 25 miles. But it was unilaterally extended by the Department of Justice to 100 miles without any change to the statute. Given that “the border” includes both land and water borders, two-thirds of Americans live within this border zone. Entire states are included within the zone, including Florida, Michigan, and Maine.

Many peaceful Americans get caught up in this bureaucratic nightmare. Thanks to the hundred-mile zone American citizens who don’t carry their passports on them at all times can be harassed and arrested by Border Patrol agents, even well inside the US border. As the New York Post describes it, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are arresting US citizens by mistake and holding them at detention centers for months—sometimes even years.”

There is nothing shocking here. This is how government agencies work.

Yet, many Trump supporters are cheering the idea that an army of government agents be let loose on American cities and towns, as if this will not affect ordinary, law-abiding citizens in any way. This is the same attitude that gave us the Patriot Act, NSA spying programs, and everything else justified by the despotic slogan of “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.”

Indeed, there are countless ways that the federal government can harass ordinary citizens and violate their property rights. Consider, for example, how anti-immigration advocates promote despotism with programs like “eVerify.” The activists want federal bureaucrats to determine if you have a right to work. And then there are the calls for new laws designed to prosecute private citizens who are guilty of the “crime” of using their own private property to rent apartments to immigrants or pay immigrants for services rendered.

It’s one thing to build a wall, to deport convicted criminals, or end taxpayer-funded subsidies for migrants. It’s quite another thing when federal agents start asking us for our papers and telling us what we can do with our own property.

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Originally Posted at https://mises.org/

zerohedge
Economics , News , Politics , Science
December 7, 2024
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The Miserable Cost Of An Open Border

Authored by Seth Barron via RealClearPolitics,

The Biden-Harris experiment in dissolving the U.S. border has wrought massive changes to American society, most of which will not be understood for years, if not decades. Since 2021, U.S. border officials have had at least 10 million “encounters” with migrants, many of whom were allowed to enter the country. There is no telling how many more aliens entered the country without encountering enforcement agents. The population of the United States may have increased by as much as 15 million people in just a few years.

This massive flow of humanity crosses multiple national borders, involves every mode of transportation, accounts for billions of dollars paid in fees to smugglers, and describes a fantastically complex economy of suffering and hope. In an effort to get a handle on this human tide, noted muckraker James O’Keefe – known for his hidden camera “gotcha” interviews with abortionists, media executives, progressive nonprofit executives, and other degenerate types – traces the migrant onrush from its source, and seeks to trace the machinery of profit and influence that is conducting it from great removes.

“Line In The Sand,” the resulting documentary, is a remarkable and humane exposition, revealing perspectives and images American audiences have mostly been prevented from seeing. O’Keefe and his intrepid team begin on the U.S. side of the Mexican border, where we witness migrants crossing the border through holes that their guides have cut in a fence that serves as a target as much as a barrier. Infrared cameras show dozens of illegal aliens streaming toward “pick-up” vehicles on the U.S. side while smugglers – presumably cartel members – a few feet away taunt O’Keefe and his group. “What if I were to run up to them right now, what would happen?” O’Keefe asks his guide. “I would highly advise you against that,” he is told, in a classic understatement.

The fact that coyotes and other human traffickers are paid to assist northbound migrants with their passage is no scandal; we all know what their motivations are and why they are doing what they do. But O’Keefe documents multiple examples of U.S. Border Patrol agents standing idly by while illegal aliens cross, virtually under their noses. “Why aren’t you doing anything?” he asks. “Have a good day, guys,” a border agent desultorily responds before driving off in the general direction of the episode. Later, a migrant stands in front of a Border Patrol truck, clearly trying to alert the agents of his intention to surrender, but is studiously ignored until O’Keefe and his team call their attention to him.

There is a kind of sad comedy in the operations of U.S. border security, and O’Keefe is not unsympathetic to the absurd position that border agents have been put in. Trained to defend the national border and to serve as the first line of defense of American soil, these agents have been recommissioned as a perverse Welcome Wagon for illegal aliens, charged with making their undocumented and uninvited entrance to the United States as commodious as possible.

Looking to get deeper into the heart of this migratory avalanche, O’Keefe went deep into Mexico, to the city of Irapuato, about 150 miles northwest of Mexico City. Irapuato is a popular railway junction where thousands of migrants climb aboard “La Bestia,” or “The Beast,” a cargo train that chugs northward toward the United States. In the film’s most remarkable footage, O’Keefe and his team join with migrants, mostly from South and Central America, to ride The Beast, also known as “el Tren del Muerto,” or the Train of Death. O’Keefe talks to the migrants without condescension, asking them their destinations and what they plan to do when they get there, and their concerns about the perilous nature of the journey. We see the film crew race to jump on a moving train and clamber on top to sit in a pile of coal; O’Keefe is shocked at how truly dangerous this small element of the trip is and sympathizes with the migrants’ difficult choices. These scenes are among the film’s most affecting, along with the crew’s random encounter with a little girl who had just crossed the border after journeying from Guatemala by herself. There is a human dimension to illegal immigration, and O’Keefe does not ignore it.

However, there is also an impersonal dimension to this massive population transfer, and O’Keefe determinedly aims to uncover it – to put a face to the institutions and administrators that benefit from the rough injection of millions of people into American society. From government agents to bus companies to nonprofit resettlement groups to private contractors running huge, walled compounds housing thousands of children, O’Keefe doggedly tries to penetrate the mechanics of a system that resolutely hides itself behind a screen of silence, usually in the name of “safety” and “privacy.”

Some of the film’s more comical moments pertain to these segments, such as when the team follows some just-arrived Chinese migrants in San Diego to an employment agency, where other Chinese aliens, already in the country for several months, complain that it’s much harder to live in the United States than they had imagined. O’Keefe tries to sniff out a connection between the owner of the agency and more powerful actors, but it emerges that there really isn’t much going on; in fact, the owner asks O’Keefe if he knows of a way to apply for government grants.

Elsewhere, O’Keefe tries to get information about the operations of several huge residential centers for unaccompanied minors and tries to spin their refusal to give him access to the centers or submit to interviews as evidence of the existence of vast, government-funded child sex trafficking networks. But it seems more likely, though no less troubling, that the open borders policy of the last four years has created a tremendous humanitarian crisis of alien children roaming the continent by themselves, and the government is probably trying to keep them from becoming prey to sex traffickers while they sort out where to send them. Though O’Keefe does not uncover a salacious network of child predators, his vigorous pursuit of the truth does reveal the existence of a large, shadowy, government-funded, and lucrative system of child “welfare.”

So, “Line In The Sand” is correct in the larger sense that billions of dollars are being spent managing this human flow, and many people are getting rich off of it. The last thing these parasitical administrators of the nonprofit industrial complex want is for the border to close. O’Keefe does a great job of capturing in real time the corruption of a local New York City nonprofit called La Jornada, whose leader, Pedro Rodriguez, evidently perpetrates fraud, demanding fees for services that the city provides for free. O’Keefe also sends a Spanish-speaking reporter undercover into the Roosevelt Hotel, New York City’s main processing center for newly-arrived migrants, which offers him free housing, medical care, and even airplane tickets, even though the reporter explains that he has no identification of any sort. How, O’Keefe asks, in our post 9/11 security-obsessed era, are we to make sense of a system that admits millions of unvetted foreigners into the country, and then offers to fly them anywhere they care to go?

“Line In The Sand” is rough in parts, but intentionally so. Its subject is so sprawling and tangled that a neat and clean representation would be a lie. Even with a nine-figure budget – which this film assuredly did not have – a documentary about the border and the 30 million-footed human swarm that has crossed it would be messy and incomplete. But James O’Keefe and his small team have done something remarkable. They have taken on the decade’s biggest story, given it form, and preserved the humanity of its subjects. It is worth watching.

Seth Barron is a writer in New York and author of the forthcoming “Weaponized from Humanix.”

Tyler Durden
Sat, 12/07/2024 – 17:30