You
have all seen the images: the million-man march coming through Mexico toward
the border of the United States. I suppose you have also seen the
pictures of hundreds of individuals climbing the fence that separates Spanish
Africa from Morocco (did you know there was a part of Spain in Africa?).
Is
it peaceful immigration, people looking for a better life, escaping
tyranny? Is it an invasion? Can it be both? How would you
decide? Are these people looking to establish homes in the unoccupied
vastness of the Rockies, the deserts, the Alps?
Are
these people armed or unarmed? Are they acting on behalf of another
state? Are they being supported by a malevolent non-state actor?
Maybe a (so-called) “non-governmental organization”? Does an invasion
require tanks and helicopters to be classified as such? Is it OK if it is
a private, mercenary army and not a state military?
If
these people were marching toward your home, would you allow them an open
border? If you were paying someone – voluntarily or not – to provide
protection from invasion, would you expect them to allow these “visitors”?
Until
individuals in the west have complete private property rights, any talk of open
borders is naïve at best and tyrannical at worst. Until individuals in
the west have complete private property rights, someone other than you will be
making decisions about who does and doesn’t cross borders.
Until
there are no state borders, it will be the state that makes the decision on who
crosses the borders. In a world of state borders, every decision
regarding immigration is a centrally-panned,
state-enforced-at-the-end-of-the-barrel-of-a-gun decision; even a position of
open borders.
Anyone
who calls for open borders in a world of state borders wants you impotent in
the face of the million-man march. This they describe as “liberty.”
If you don’t think The Camp of the Saints paints the picture,
take a look again at the pictures from Mexico and Spain.
Anyone
who calls for open borders in a world of state borders might be mouthing the
word “liberty”; just keep in mind: it isn’t your liberty that they are
talking about.
