Will Biden’s Trip to the Border Win the War on Immigrants?

by
Jacob G. Hornberger
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Immigration-control advocates are ecstatic over President Biden’s visit to El Paso. Maybe — just maybe — Biden’s trip will be what finally — finally! — brings victory in the decades-long U.S. war on immigrants.

Except that it won’t. The hope of the immigration-control advocates will be dashed once again. The decades-old immigration crisis, along with the deaths, suffering, and police state that come with it, will go on, notwithstanding Biden’s trip to the border.

But there is a positive aspect to Biden’s trip. It helps to dispel the delusion under which conservatives have suffered ever since Biden became president. That delusion is that President Biden has supposedly adopted a policy of “open borders.”

Let’s first examine what is meant by the concept of open borders — genuine open borders. It’s a libertarian concept that holds that people should be free to cross borders, back and forth, without any governmental interference.

A good example of genuine open borders is the domestic United States. People are free to cross state borders, back and forth, without any governmental interference. There are no inspection stations at state borders at which government officials stop vehicles and search them. There are no state border patrols. There are no highway checkpoints to determine if people have entered the state without official permission. There are no refugee statuses for people fleeing one state and moving to another. There is no application process to cross a state border. There are no warrantless searches of farms along the border. There are no immigration police states along state borders. 

All of those things exist along the U.S.-Mexico border. They are part and parcel of America’s immigration-control system. When Biden visited El Paso, immigration officials proudly showed him how they stop and search vehicles for drugs, money, immigrants, and contraband. That met with Biden’s exuberant approval. 

In response to right-wing pressure, Biden officials have recently announced that they intend to enforce America’s immigration police state more fiercely to stem the flow of immigrants into the United States. During his trip, Biden also made it clear that refugees who entered into the United States without official permission would be immediately deported. He wants them to apply for refugee status from their country of origin. Never mind that they might be dead by the time their application is decided by some U.S. immigration bureaucrat. 

Meanwhile, deportations proceed apace under Biden. Let’s not forget that when Biden was vice-president, his boss, President Obama, was named “Deporter in Chief” for the large number of deportations under his regime. That too met with Biden’s approval. 

So, why do conservatives continue to refer to America’s immigration police state under Biden as “open borders”? The answer lies in the concept of “individual responsibility.” Conservatives loathe the concept of “individual responsibility,” at least when it is applied to them. In fact, holding up the concept of “individual responsibility” to a conservative is like holding up a cross to a vampire. It’s very painful for the vampire, just as it is to the conservative.

What is going on here is that the crisis and chaos on the border are part and parcel of the immigration-control system that both Republicans and Democrats have foisted upon our land. It is a socialist system because it is based on the socialist principle of central planning. Socialist central planning, not surprisingly, has come with death, suffering, and an immigration police state that has contributed to the destruction of economic liberty and civil liberties in America. 

In other words, the flow of immigrants across the border is not the result of “open borders” but rather to the inability of both Democrats and Republicans to make their socialist immigration system and their immigration police state work. But rather than take individual responsibility for the failure of their socialist system and their immigration police state, conservatives deflect the problem by saying that it’s all the fault of Biden’s supposed “open-border” policy, notwithstanding the fact that the border checkpoints, forced deportations, Border Patrol searches, and other immigration-police state measures continue to exist under Biden.

Let’s keep something important in mind: President Trump had four years to make his socialist system work. He failed, even with the construction of his beloved Berlin Wall along the border. That’s because no one can make socialism work, not even a conservative. No matter who is president, America’s decades-long, ongoing, never-ending, perpetual immigration crisis and chaos will continue, so long as America continues to embrace immigration socialism. And so will the hand-wringing, anxiety, tension, and depression that afflict immigration-control advocates over what they lament is an “invasion.”

There is but one way — I repeat: just one way — to finally bring an end to the decades-long, ongoing, never-ending, perpetual immigration crisis and chaos along the border, along with all the deaths and suffering — freedom and free markets. That means open borders — genuine open borders — that is, the free movements of goods, services, and people across the international border, just like we have with domestic state borders. That was America’s way for more than 100 years. Liberty, not socialism, is our heritage as Americans.