Tear down that wall, Mr. Bush

reprinted from 10/08/03

Yesterday, I described my own life experience as being oriented against immigration, but said that I had nevertheless moved my own position to support of completely open borders.

I think that my current view of immigration was formed when I realized that I wouldn't be here if it weren't for my immigrating ancestors. I could have just as easily been born a German boy, and been one of millions killed during WWII bombing. If they hadn't come to America, my ancestors might have been active enemies of the Allies in WWII. Those are sobering thoughts. So is the fact that some 6 million Germans immigrated to the U.S. before Hitler came to power. If they had stayed at home, might that have shifted the balance of power to Hitler?

Fact is... I owe my life to immigrants... to people who left almost everything behind and made a grueling transition to another nation. I dare say that the same thing is true of you. Where might you have been if your ancestors hadn't immigrated to the U.S.?

Our grandest American symbol is the Statue of Liberty, which bears the message:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Man... that's what happened! Millions of tired and poor came here... and created the grandest nation this earth has ever seen. A combination of a great constitutional beginning, ample land and resources, a small, non-intrusive government... and the "wretched refuse" made it into something truly magical.

Right now, there are over 33 million people living in America who were born in another country... 11.5% of the population. That's the largest number ever, although the percentage was a bit higher in 1910.

Those who fear job loss from immigrants are suffering from a misunderstanding of economics. They tend to think of the number of jobs as fixed. Ain't so. All those immigrants are taking jobs, but they're also spending their earnings on housing, food, and much of the same goods we all buy. They're also paying taxes. About the same percentage of immigrants are starting new businesses as are those of us born here. Naturally, all that new economic activity creates more jobs. Fact is, it usually creates better jobs than those the immigrants are taking.

The education and skill level of most immigrants is lower than that of most Americans, so they're usually forced to take the lower-paying jobs available... jobs that most Americans tend to ignore. For immigrants, such jobs give them an opportunity to survive while they become comfortable with a new society and often a new language. As they acclimate and gain new skills, they will move up the job scale, becoming more productive, earning better wages, producing more, spending more, and boosting our economy like any other member of our society.

Immigrants pay more than $90 billion in taxes every year and receive only $5 billion in welfare. Without their contributions to the public treasury, the economy would suffer enormous losses.

Completely open borders?

Suppose it were even easier to move to America? Suppose there were no restrictions? Suppose there were not all the bureaucratic hurdles? Truth is, one has to have a pretty good incentive to jump through the hoops needed to get here, and then to learn to live in a society that may be quite alien for some time. That means that immigrants are those who are most desperate to have a better opportunity. If we had open borders, it's likely that we would attract more new immigrants who are not so desperate... those who are better educated, more highly skilled and ambitious, who could add even more to our economy... similar to those high-tech workers that were allowed to come here when Silicon Valley couldn't find enough workers.

One of the miserable aspects of controlled immigration is that it's fickle, arbitrary, and subject to political whim. The high-tech immigration limits were raised to satisfy business owners, then lowered to satisfy unemployed workers during a recession. There are lots of potential contributors and voters to be satisfied, and that is what political manipulation of immigration is all about.

Do I worry about foreigners coming here to work? Hell no, I welcome them! They bring with them qualities that many Americans have lost. Like our immigrant ancestors, they tend to be entrepreneurial. They're still excited about the value of liberty. They're less willing to bury their spirit and creativity under long-term boring jobs. While a high percentage of Americans have bought into the banal trap of doing mundane safe, secure corporate work, immigrants have a spirit that harks back to what made this nation exciting.

As our increasingly stilted society closes in on itself, accepting security in exchange for liberty, welfare in place of opportunity, and political correctness instead of openness, it's likely that immigrants will resist, or even overwhelm those destructive tendencies.

Our nation was built by immigrants. There is no doubt that immigrants add to our economy. What sort of people fear immigrants? Those who fear they can't personally compete? Those who are bigoted? Those who fear change? Do those people represent the American spirit? Not to me. My advice to our President would be the same as the challenge issued by President Reagan to Gorbachev...

"Come here to this gate!
Mr. Bush, open this gate!
Mr. Bush, tear down this wall!"

Open that golden door beside Liberty's lamp. It is The American Way.