People all over the world want to come to the United States to escape political repression, economic stagnation, and other kinds of persecution. This has been the case for 400 years, since the first colonists arrived. One of my great-grandfathers was a Lithuanian Jew who fled anti-Semitism in Czarist Russia in 1890. Another great-grandfather fled forced military service in Germany in 1904.

Ever since Democrats and Republicans enacted a system of immigration controls way back in 1924, there has been a never-ending immigration crisis.  This is driven by people having varying views on who should be allowed to come here, often tainted by religious, ethnic, or racial prejudice, or the false view that immigrants are a drain on the economy.  We first saw the cruelty of these laws in the 1930s, when European Jews fleeing Nazi tyranny were denied entry to the U. S.

Any time Congress tries to reform the problem they created, they have failed miserably.  This has caused untold suffering, as well as the creation of an immigration police state, especially in southwestern states like Texas.

Examples abound, including domestic highway checkpoints; warrantless federal trespasses onto ranches and farms; warrantless searches on Greyhound buses; forced deportations; raids on private businesses; forcible separation of children from parents; and abuse of people seeking refugee status. This has led to much death and suffering, not to mention the massive infringements on the liberty and privacy of the American people (such as with E-Verify requirements to find work).

As with most issues, the solution is to embrace economic liberty and free markets. That means the free movement of people across international borders, with an Ellis-Island- style immigration system where foreigners are welcome to come here but must be checked for a criminal record and communicable diseases before being let in. Currently, it’s almost impossible for most people to come to the U. S. legally. Even those who do apply through the current system are faced with massive backlogs where their applications are ignored. Letting people enter at any international port of entry – at the border, at airports, at ports on water, etc.- would relieve Texas border towns from having immigrants flock to those areas. There would no longer be a reason to build a border wall, which is a terrible idea anyway. The new arrivals should be able to work from Day One, instead of being placed on welfare programs and told to wait for a work permit.

Unlike what you hear in the media and from right-wing politicians like Senator Ted Cruz, immigrants (both “legal” and “illegal”) commit far fewer crimes than native-born Americans. They contribute to our economy, not detract from it. The U.S. is a nation of immigrants, and we need to recognize and embrace our rich history as a melting pot of people from all over the world, instead of falling prey to ill-informed xenophobia that hurts both Americans and immigrants alike.

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