The Libertarian Party on Immigration
The PL issues a statment on immigration policy.
Today the Libertarian Party issued a press release with views on immigration from its chair, Mark Hinkle: Libertarian Chair: Time to Re-Legalize Immigration.
The statement makes a number of salient points, but it boils down to this: “Immigrants come here to work. Anyone who works and produces makes others better off.”
What it all points to is the fact that we need serious immigration reform not the continuation of the current policies that ignores reality and creates new problems instead of solving them.
Moreover it points to the following excellent flowchart from Reason that was published two-years ago that underscores the fundamental problems of out current immigration policy: click. If you read through the whole thing you will understand why Hinkle is calling for immigration to be “re-legalize[d].”
The line so many are fond of is “we’re not against immigration, just illegal immigration”. As the chart shows, this is like Mayor Daley saying, “I’m not against firearms, just illegal firearms”. When there’s no way for the average person to legally do it, it becomes a distinction in search of a difference.
In this case — as in many — the Libertarian party platform makes more sense than either Republicans or Democrats. And it’s more humane all around. I read their release and have to agree with about 95 percent of that. Still not entirely sure about cancelling the War on Drugs, but that program has been a failure like most govt programs. I can support legalization of pot, but the other hard drugs probably should be off limits. But people who want or need to use them are going find a way anyway…food for honest debate, which their is little of now. Name calling seems to be the national pastime nowadays.