Topic: Immigration and trade
Postville Immigration Raid My thoughts against the Postville immigration raid and what the raid accomplished.by BattleStations
(libertarian)
Monday, June 9, 2008
The "SS style" raid in Postville was an outrageous abuse of government power. First and foremost, communities should not be punished for Congress' failure to produce an equitable immigration policy. Gov Culver stood idly by as federal agents invaded the small Iowa town. Then he praised the raid proclaiming it stood for the rule of law. There is no "rule of law" when our own government violates the 4th amendment with reckless and unreasonable seizures for alleged petty offenses.
What did the raid accomplish? It removed 15% of the population that contributed to the local economy. It tore apart families, sending women and children to detention camps. It spread fear and uncertainty throughout Postville and severely impacted its largest employer. The government forces that created the mess have simply moved on and left it for the townspeople to clean up.
"Cracking down" on immigrants is the mark of an intolerant society. It defies principles of freedom and liberty. America stands as a beacon guiding freedom-loving people everywhere. On the other hand, our immigration policy resembles that of an oppressive society focused on raids, detention camps, deportation and human rights abuses.
Congress needs to spotlight more avenues for immigrants to come here and work. Every year millions of job openings are not filled. Every year millions of potential immigrants are turned away because there are not enough visas. As a result, the economy suffers and desperate people must risk deportation to put food on the table for their families.
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The views expressed in this
article are those of BattleStations only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. BattleStations is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Like most big L Libertarians you seem to think we should be living and acting today as if we have already obtained the nirvana of freedom under libertarian principles worldwide. Wake up! We have been suffering under big government rules and restrictions in this country for decades and other countries have fallen to even more tyranical rule. We cannot operate blind to the realities of the world.
If we allowed Agriprocessors to stay in operation with illegal workers they would continue to abuse them and take advantage of their illegal status in keeping their pay unfairly low. If we allowed the immigrants to continue to use forged documents then they can continue to abuse the work/credit/tax history of the citiziens who's identity they took.
As for whether we should allow all immigrants no matter number or status, while my ideal as well, under today's world environment that will leave us swamped with people and most likely dealing with much larger social issues. Particularly given our current welfare and other dependent social programs.
We need to make changes to America before we can really help the rest of the world including immigrants. Until we can convince Americans that people can be self-reliant and that we don't need big government then the costs, both social and monetary, of unlimitied immigration would destroy us.
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