The Dystopian Bungling and Brutality of Immigration Enforcement
By Anthony Gregory • Wednesday January 4, 2012 12:20 PM PDT • 15 Comments
A fourteen- or fifteen-year-old Dallas girl was deported by U.S. immigration officials to Colombia. She spoke no Spanish and they did appear not to have even checked her fingerprints to ensure she was who they thought she was. It’s true, she gave a false name to local police, but there is simply no excuse for the government deporting anyone for any reason without even bothering with the basic bureaucratic steps it supposedly has in place to prevent such injustices. But of course, the fingerprint system is not there to protect people from government overreach; it’s there to empower the state.
I wonder how so many Americans can actually fear immigrants—legal or illegal—more than the state and its vast powers that are needed to “crack down” on them. There are millions of illegals living in the U.S., and to expel them, or even stop the entrance of millions more, would require a police state likely far greater than anything seen in American history. Already, the U.S. detains suspected aliens without real due process. Many have died in “administrative custody.” The Obama administration, far from ushering in a more liberal era of immigration enforcement, has engaged in record numbers of deportations. Obama is on track to deport more people in his first term than his predecessor did in two. Yet this does not satisfy those who strangely think that the current administration has been soft on immigration. What would? How many more American teenagers are we willing to see sent to foreign countries where they don’t know the language? How many more poor people are we willing to see die in custody? How many businesses turned upside down in the name of interfering with an employer’s and employee’s God-given right to make a mutually beneficial deal regardless of where they were born? The collateral damage in a war on illegal immigration—one that would satisfy those who want to see the federal government really “do something” about the “problem”—would be on such a grand scale of horror, the atrocities mounting up every day, that I shudder to think about it.
Liberty means liberty for all. We can choose between an unbridled state, lawless government, peaceful people crushed under the weight of an American dystopian bureaucracy, or we can choose to restore the freedom for people who want to come here that existed almost fully before the Progressive Era. That is the choice.
Tags: Civil Liberties, Civil Society, Fascism, Immigration, Natural Law, Police, Politics, Power, Property Rights, Racism, Surveillance, The State 
“Liberty means liberty for all.” In a perfect world, I would agree with you. This is not a perfect world. In a perfect world, most Americans would welcome moast anyone who wanted to come here to escape oppression. This is not a perfect world. We have a Constitution which guarantees certain rights and privileges for the legal citizens of this country. Our Constitution is not a global generic statement of rights and privileges guaranteed to any human being from any country in the world. In a perfect world it might become such a document, but again, THIS IS NOT A PERFECT WORLD! The government of this country has responsibilities to it’s citizens first and foremost – no one else.
Sandra | Jan 4, 2012 | Reply
Actually, Sandra, most of the Constitution has little to do with “legal citizens” at all. The power it defines is usually explained in relation to “persons.” The entire Bill of Rights doesn’t protect only citizens. He protects aliens too. http://blog.independent.org/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?p=13881&approved=1#comments-form
Anthony Gregory | Jan 4, 2012 | Reply
Well, yes, we have a Constitution.
That constitution lays out certain powers for the federal government, and says that any such powers it DOESN’T lay out, that government doesn’t have.
A federal power to regulate immigration is completely missing from the Constitution. Not only is it missing, but it is specifically prohibited to the federal government for the first 20 years of constitutional rule, and it is specifically prohibited to amend that prohibition OUT of the Constitution for 20 years. The 20 years ended in 1808, but there’s never been any amendment to provide for such a federal power.
Thomas L. Knapp | Jan 4, 2012 | Reply
The Constitutional issues surrounding immigration are fun for lawyers to argue but are largely irrelevant. What pushes open immigration is 1) ethnic subgroups wishing to increase their power, 2) employers wishing a large supply of cheap labor, and 3) political parties (especially Democrats) looking for new sources of supporting voters.
John Geyer | Jan 5, 2012 | Reply
I agree with Tom.
Anthony Gregory | Jan 5, 2012 | Reply
As a libertarian, I believe that I am a true American. As such I know that being a true American is a state of mind, not of birth. So if a person, anywhere in the world, looks over the horizon and sees that torch in a NY harbor, and if they know what it means and say to themselves, “That’s for me!”, then that person is as American as I am before they even take a single step to get here. And when they do, we should say to them, “Welcome home brother, welcome home sister. We’re glad you’re here.” Also, to all the people who were born here and want to use their votes to turn this country into a socialist hellhole, I say, “Plenty of places already like that. The border is open in the other direction too.”
P. Scott Williams | Jan 8, 2012 | Reply
I can’t help but think that Obama’s mass deportations are looked on kindly by his labor union backers. Labor unions have never been the friend of immigrants.
Jonathan Bean | Jan 9, 2012 | Reply
Some of the Biblical passages that stick to me are;
“every man returns to his own land...”, “The world will see Me gathering my people from the four corners of the world”, “Obey the laws of the hypocrites”, “How is it you know the signs of the weather and do not know the signs of the times?”, “You teach the letter of the law but do not know its meaning”.
Some of the analyses of current events describe the Federal Government as looters of the Social Security Trust, who turned the Trust into the General Revenue, and used it, among other things to pay for the health and education of illegal immigrants. Any class of working Americans can be prosecuted, have their wages garnishe’d and jailed for non payment of taxes. (That’s Rich or Working Poor).
Believing you’re attempting to ordinate a constitutionally correct system by extortion and larceny, to endow the blessings of liberty to those who can afford to hire cheap labor whos health and education is paid for by proportionally rich and poor taxpayers, some of whom have been replaced by cheap illegal or foreign labor, is inducing a rectification (if sane people manage to solve it) or calamity.
Joseph Pascavage | Jan 9, 2012 | Reply
No, this isn’t a perfect world. So why in the world would you want to make it worse? Remember, a government powerful enough to keep “them” out is more than powerful enough to keep you in. A government that has no respect for “foreigner’s” rights will have no respect for your rights either. A government that demands a bureaucratic run around for people from other countries will be able to give YOU a bureaucratic run around. You don’t give the monster more tools to work with for any reason. The so called threat of illegal immigrants is far less of a threat than the one posed by an all powerful government. Or have you learned nothing from the Soviet experiment?
PaulTheCabDriver | Jan 10, 2012 | Reply
My mother arrived in this country from Mexico. An illegal until the age of 27, she would have been thrown out as a seven year old. Mother now at 93, boasts a Stanford graduate, University of Oregon graduate, 3 grand daughters, each with a Masters. One as a teacher of Spanish and English as a a second language (she helps immigrants learn literacy!)..another is a credentialed psychological therapist and another a graphic designer.
My boasting is only to prove that there are millions here who did wonderful things with their lives given an opportunity that was not available to them in their native country. Why are we so afraid of the differences that come with people from other countries? I am ashamed for a country I call “home”.
carmelita ellis | Jan 10, 2012 | Reply
I like a quote by Patrick Henry that I really like:
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” – Patrick Henry
Ryan Whitaker | Jan 10, 2012 | Reply
Why couch the problem as ‘fear of immigrants because they’re different”?
Why even impregnate the listener or reader with the word “immigrant”.
My grandparents came here through Ellis Island, and worked as miners, and as far as I know paid taxes. Are the current line of immigrants coming here with the express intent of finding opportunity through identity-theft and tax evasion?
An economiist has found that the Federal Government from Reagan/Clinton/Bush ’till now has been looting the Social Security Trust for, among other things, the health and education of illegal immigrants. It’s been stated that if they haden’t looted Social Security, President Obama could not have threatened Social Security retirees’ with the witholding of checks last August. There’d have been $2.6 or 7 trillion dollars there, but it’s been dumped into General Revenue, where it’s available for anything the Government wants to spend it on. Expecting taxpayers, some who earn as much as illegal workers, to pay for the education and health of illegals, and expecting retirees to starve or freeze to death because they’re retirement moneys are paying for benefits the illegals don’t want to pay for is a crime. And to take $700 from the yearly earnings of working poor citizens, when their Social Security payments and Income Taxes are paying for the health and education of illegals is another example of the distressing blindness and deafness of people who think of it as an “IMMIGRATION” problem.
There’s too much self-interest and self righteousness in the current array of argument.
Joseph Pascavage | Jan 13, 2012 | Reply
Born here or not, tax and Social Security money IS used to fund health and education of un-registered workers. Welcoming immigrants is a guarantee of money spent socialistically.
“Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free” seems to be supplanted with “give me your prodigies” to enhance the economy. Some talk of removing only those who don’t have marketable skills. People who benefit hiring people here illegally, don’t have to pay into health and education in the same way they’d pay if they hire a citizen. Among others, working poor citizens pay for the health and education of illegals, and will be expected to pay $700 per year into a government health plan for themselves, if they don’t buy medical insurance.
Joseph Pascavage | Jan 14, 2012 | Reply