Abbott’s Border Follies

Fight Censorship, Share This Post!

Advocates of immigration controls are undoubtedly ecstatic over Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s recent border follies. 

Not satisfied with federal inspection of commercial vehicles entering the United States from Mexico, Abbott ordered state troopers to conduct additional searches of vehicles coming into the United States. 

Abbott’s justification for his inspection folly? He says he is just trying to win the war on drugs and the war on illegal immigration. He obviously intended to show up federal inspectors by showing people how many drugs and illegal immigrants they had missed with their inspections. 

Owing to public anger and outrage over his inspection folly, Abbott ended up having to back down and order a stop to his inspections, but not before people had suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in financial losses due to Abbott’s inspection slowdown, not to mention all the tax monies that were wasted in the process.

Meanwhile, as a protest against what he calls President Biden’s “open-border” policy, Abbott had his goons transport several busloads of illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C. Apparently unafraid of violating a federal law that makes transporting illegal immigrants a felony, Abbott’s goons released the immigrants in the middle of the nation’s capital.

How in the world can one human being treat other human beings in this way? In carrying out his immigrant-transportation folly, I can’t help but wonder whether Abbott was thinking of 19th-century Texas cattle drives in which cattle owners would move their herds to Kansas. Why, I’ll bet that Abbott even goes to church every Sunday where he dutifully recites God’s second-greatest commandment (which is just like the first): Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 

It’s difficult to know whether Abbott is playing politics or is just plain ignorant when he refers to Biden’s “open-border” policy. Biden is no more as an open-borders advocate than Barack Obama was when he was president. Obama, you will recall, was called America’s “deporter in chief” for the record number of illegal immigrants he and his goons forcibly returned to their country of origin.

Open borders are what we have domestically between the states. One can cross, for example, from Oklahoma into Texas freely without any governmental control or interference whatsoever. The same applies to people crossing the border between Maryland and Virginia. The same applies to all the other states across the United States. No border guards. No inspections. Just a sign that says, “Welcome to the state.”

That is a system of open borders — the free, unrestricted movement of goods, services, and people across borders. That’s a far cry from what we have along the U.S.-Mexico border, which is actually an immigration police state.

Oh, sure, there are always differences between how the Democrats enforce America’s system of immigration controls, as compared to Republicans. For example, Republicans favor a Berlin Wall along the border to enforce their system of immigration controls. Democrats favor a Berlin Fence. They also might differ on how to treat immigrants who are seeking political asylum. Or on how many vehicles should be inspected that are crossing into the United States from Mexico. Or how intrusive and extensive such inspections should be. 

Big deal. All that we are talking about is a difference in enforcement. Abbot’s belief that Biden favors “open borders” simply because he favors enforcing immigration controls differently from Abbott is, well, just plain nonsensical and silly.

Somebody needs to inform Abbott of what the concept of open borders really means — free trade and open immigration — the free movements of goods, services, and people across international borders — a system based on the principles of economic liberty, freedom of association, liberty of contract, and free markets.

In other words, think about the open-border system that we have here between the states and then apply it to the U.S.-Mexico border. No more Border Patrol. No more governmental inspectors. No more governmental control or interference at all. In Texas, crossing the bridges spanning the Rio Grande would be no different than crossing the bridges spanning the Mississippi River.

There has been an immigration “crisis” my entire life. There is a simple reason for that: America’s system of immigration controls, which is a socialist system. Socialism always produces crises and chaos. 

Both Republicans and Democrats love socialism, as reflected by their joint love of America’s system of immigration controls (as well as their joint love of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public (i.e., government) schooling, the Federal Reserve, and other socialist programs. It is only we libertarians who stand against socialism and all of its deadly and destructive consequences. It is only we libertarians who stand in favor of economic liberty, free markets, and limited government. It is only we libertarians who favor open borders.

There is but one solution — I repeat, only one solution — to America’s immigration “crisis.” That solution is open borders. Don’t count on Greg Abbott or Joe Biden to embrace the solution to America’s perpetual immigration “crisis.” Like other Republicans and Democrats, they are both much too wedded to socialism. 

The post Abbott’s Border Follies appeared first on The Future of Freedom Foundation.


Fight Censorship, Share This Post!

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.