The illegal immigrant crisis created by the Biden regime is so appalling, and so gigantic, that it has rightly captured the attention of both the public and the Trump administration. While the scale of the crisis defies description, it can largely be resolved through a faithful execution of existing immigration law. In dealing with the problem of illegal immigration, however, it is important that we also think about America’s legal immigration policy.
In thinking about immigration, we have the benefit of being about to draw upon the ideas of America’s Founding Fathers. Not so much on specific policies, as early America’s immigration policies were largely driven in large measure by the particular circumstances of the time, but in terms of general principles. The principles of the American Founding form a series of guideposts for thinking about legal immigration policy.
Legal immigration policy, like any other policy, should be oriented around the primary purpose of any just government: the protection of the unalienable natural rights of American citizens. The Declaration of Independence asserts that the purpose of government is “to secure these rights”, a reference to the unalienable natural rights stated earlier in the document. The obligation to secure rights, however, extends only to those, who are lawful members of the political community: citizens. Generally speaking, the government is not obligated to secure the rights of non-citizens.
An exception is rightfully made for non-citizens who are legally within the jurisdiction of the United States. These people have natural rights as well, which no one may rightfully violate. However, this does not confer a right, on the part of non-citizens, to be in the U.S. in the first place. No non-citizen has a right to enter into, or remain in, the U.S. To the outside world, the sovereign territory of the U.S. is as much the collective property of the people of the U.S. as one’s home is his personal property. Just as I have the right to regulate ingress into my home, so do America’s citizens have the right to regulate ingress into the U.S.
Within this framework, we can begin to think about the broad contours of legal immigration policy. In the first place, people who constitute a direct threat to the rights of our citizens should not be permitted. This would include known or suspected criminals or carriers of diseases. It also includes those who may constitute a national security threat to the U.S., such as known or suspected terrorists, but also persons who are or may be agents of foreign governments.
Such restrictions are just the beginning. Unlike many other nations, which can rely on shared ancestry or mytho-historical origins as a basis for national unity, the basis of our unity is a shared understanding of the principles of justice. This is in no way an argument that America is a “propositional nation,” based solely on abstract ideals, but a shared commitment to the principles of the American Founding has always been part of our identity. When that shared commitment has broken down, as it did in the 1850s, and has done today, the results have been catastrophic. We should therefore only admit those who are not hostile to our principles.
America, however, is more than a set of ideals. It is a people – a people with a set of moral and cultural values, upon which American liberty and self-government are predicated. John Adams remarked that “Our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Most of the world does not share our culture or our morality, but without these, our liberty and our way of life is impossible. We ought to admit those only, whom we believe will adopt and support our morality and culture, and in numbers small enough to allow for effective assimilation.
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Contrary to many on all sides of the political spectrum today, however, we ought not admit people into the U.S. simply for economic reasons. Protecting American citizens means protecting their ability to earn a decent income and to live in the dignity that comes with that. Bringing in foreign workers, including skilled foreign workers, displaces American citizens. America is more than the collective pursuit of maximum economic productivity.
Even though immigration and citizenship are conceptually distinct issues, immigration is generally the first step on the road to citizenship, and we should thus be extremely judicious in deciding whom to admit. While illegal immigration is obviously a problem of particular urgency in America today, we ought not lose sight of the fact that legal immigration must be handled with great care. After all, the migrant crises in Canada and Western Europe are largely disasters of legal immigration, rather than willful defiance of law.
Kevin Portteus is a professor of politics and the Director of American Studies at Hillsdale College.