Let’s all calm down about illegal immigration

The question of what exactly the United States should do with the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently within its borders is a pressing one. It has become more so in recent weeks thanks to an influx of minor children — mostly Central Americans traveling alone.

This is not a new problem, but their numbers are growing. An estimated 75,000 of these kids may arrive by the end of 2014. What we shouldn’t do in responses to this problem is listen to folks like former Wheel of Fortune and Love Connection host Chuck Woolery who last week tweeted “While Isis invades #Iraq, #Mexicans are invading America. Obama will do nothing about either one. No one is safe from #Democrats.”

Woolery was voicing a not uncommon position particularly for conservatives or conservative-leaning libertarians, but it’s a bad one.

First and foremost, a humble suggestion to stop demonizing these people so intensely. Anecdotal crime horror stories, or fears of Spanish-speaking plague are not policy arguments, nor are they recognition that we’re talking about thousands of real individuals here.

Numerous studies show that immigrants commit no more crimes – beyond the malum prohibitum violation of trespassing into the country – than a citizen does. One study suggested foreign-born men were five times less likely to be in prison. Plus, since 1994 violent crime in the U.S. has nearly halved while illegal immigration has doubled.

Now, the most common sentence spoken about this issue is that we must have our border “secure” before there’s any serious talk about changing immigration policy. Even the most liberty-loving politicians must first pledge fealty to the rule of “securing the border.” However, back in September, 2011, Rep. Ron Paul pointed out that anyone worried about the federal government maybe shouldn’t embrace a heavily militarized border just to keep out immigrants.

The border is also incredibly militarized already, even if it’s not enough for everyone’s satisfaction. The Fourth Amendment’s now-flimsy protections have always been lessened during border crossings. But since 1976, anyone within 100 miles of a Northern or Southern border, citizen or not, can be subject to internal immigration checkpoints.

Government mission creep is inevitable. The notion that intrusive measures will stay confined to bothering non-citizens is laughable. And technology will make this more and more true. There are ten drones on the border right now, and those have been borrowed by multiple federal agencies — often the DEA and ICE, but also state police — more than 700 times between 2010 and 2012.

Much like Obama’s power to assassinate whomever he judges a great enough threat now affects American citizens — sometimes teenage ones –, the ever-impossible-to-reach goal of a fully secure border has already damaged American citizens’ rights to go about their lives without being harangued by federal agents. This myth is a perpetual threat to all our liberty.

What else? Well, the reported $2.3 billion taxpayer cost these immigrants kids will bring may give fiscal conservatives pause…unless it’s compared with the stalled SB 744’s $46 billion tab for border security and other supposed essentials. I’d rather pay for housing immigrant children than for building a new Maginot Line. You may disagree. But it would behoove us all to realize that border security hysteria is usually about as fiscally conservative as perpetual empire.

Plus, most immigrants pull their own weight. More than half of the 11 million or so illegal immigrants currently here pay income taxes. If they are salaried individuals who get paychecks that include withholding, they will never see that money again since they don’t receive Medicare or Social Security. They are also constantly paying sales taxes.

Letting people come in and work for a short time would eliminate so many of our problems here, but even problems associated with long-term illegal immigration populations have been exaggerated. The U.S. has a lot of room, and a lot of people willing to work. What’s the real problem?

Finally, the moral outrage over the fact of illegal immigration is covering up a familiar hyper-partisan sleight of hand — blaming only the current administration. In 1986, Ronald Reagan signed a bill which lead to more than three million people becoming citizens.

Just about the only good thing that came of the entirety of George W. Bush’s eight years in office was the start of the DREAM act. Bush also tried to begin a guest worker program, something we should still consider.

In his first three years in office, Barack Obama had 1,000,000 people deported. Leftists were horrified that he was such a hard-ass on the issue. And yet, all over the conservative Drudge-o-sphere, there is endless, shrieking blame that Obama has dared to not prioritize “securing” the border, and is not interested in sending thousands of children back to crime and poverty-ridden Central American nations right this second.

Go back to your game shows, Chuck. These people are a problem because the Border Patrol doesn’t have the resources to help them or even hold them humanely, but that’s all. They mean us no harm. Let them come in, let them work, and let’s all calm down about it.

This influx of immigrants may be a problem, but it’s no invasion.