Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh – Ah!
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying:
Valhalla, I am coming!
No wait. That’s not it.
This is the ode to immigration I was looking for — from Maximum Leader Hood:
There is a range of views about the immigration issue within JLF itself, so in some ways we are a microcosm of the larger divide. Some argue for virtually an open-borders policy (as do contributors to a new Reason magazine spread on the issue that’s well worth a read, though it has not yet come online). Others advocate strict employer sanctions, border enforcement, and a no-tolerance policy, as articulated by the editors of National Review among others, that is intended to attrit the ranks of illegal immigrants over the coming years (virtually no one argues for mass deportation, thank goodness).
My own view lies somewhere in between, though closer to the pro-immigration than anti-immigration pole. I do think that a country with passionate and deadly enemies has the right and responsibility to police its borders, and so I’d like to see stronger efforts to ensure that visitors and immigrants alike do not bring disease, criminality, terrorist intent, or dependence. But I do believe that an international market for labor is part and parcel of free trade – and that America has historically been stronger, not weaker, for its waves of immigrants seeking a better life and fleeting tyranny. Much of the economics behind recent restrictionist rhetoric is simplistic in the extreme, or more usually associated with labor unions, though I repeat myself.
Let me second those thoughts — mostly — and add that anyone who thinks illegal aliens are driving the explosive growth in the size and cost of government in Mecklenburg County is kidding themselves.
