“The Whole World Would Come to America”
REMINDER: We have a change in schedule for our open-borders conference. I will be presenting this coming Monday, October 7, at 7 p.m.- 8 p.m. Eastern time. I invite everyone to participate. I welcome all questions and challenges regarding the concept of open borders. To receive your Zoom link, register here.
Reminder: I’ll be speaking at the JFK Lancer Conference in Dallas, which is being held on November 22-24 at the Dallas Marriott Downtown. My longtime friend Mike Swanson, whose two books (here and here) I highly recommend, is also speaking there. I hope to see you there!
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One of the common fears regarding the concept of open borders is that as soon as it is adopted, the entire world would come to the United States. It’s an irrational fear.
We have a system of open borders here within the United States. We take it for granted simply because we were born and raised under it and also because it’s been our system since the inception of our nation.
People are free to cross state lines without restriction. No vetting stations are at state crossing points. No state border patrol. No highway checkpoints. No controls on people moving from one state to another. No Berlin Walls or concertina wire around each state. Simply free, unrestricted movements of goods, services, and people.
Every day there are tens of thousands of people who leave Maryland, cross the Potomac River, and enter Virginia. Nobody is vetting them. They can consist of murderers, rapists, robbers, terrorists, Muslims, illegals, drug dealers, or people who are entering Virginia to steal our jobs or find spouses to marry. Nobody paces the floor or loses sleep. Nobody is calling for border controls.
For several years, thousands of people have been escaping California and moving to Austin, Texas. I lived in Austin for three years back in the 1970s when I was attending law school at the University of Texas. I can attest that Austin is the finest city in the United States. There is good reason why so many people are moving to Austin.
Given such, there is a possibility that everyone in the nation will suddenly decide to move to Austin. You can’t deny it, just as I cannot deny that there is a possibility that everyone in the world could suddenly decide to move to the United States under a system of international open borders.
So, why wait for that possibility to materialize? Why not let Texas enact border controls all around the state? That would ensure that if the entire nation were suddenly to decide to move to Austin, the state could prevent that from happening.
For that matter, the same situation applies to New York City. There is a possibility that the entire nation could suddenly decide to move there, joining the millions of people who have already done so. You can’t deny that that is a possibility. Could New York City handle another 333 million people? A system of state border controls would prevent this possibility from happening. We should act now to address this possibi
Article from The Future of Freedom Foundation
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