Okay, but we still need to have an immigration process. Illegal immigration would still exist, because people would still be unwilling or unable to go through the process of legally immigrating. And again, how can we reward people for circumventing the system that so many others had to go through? Of course we can streamline the process, but I seriously doubt that it will prevent the majority of illegal immigration. EDIT: @ pedro Actually a vast majority of immigrants wouldn't consider overpopulation when emigrating from their home country because the conditions in their home country are so shitty. I mean eventually we could become shitty enough to make them think twice about immigrating here, but do we actually want to reach that point?
Yeah. I heard that the US is actually having less illegal immagration problems because of the falling economy. But in retrospect, the illegal immagrants remember that a crappy US economy is still better than back home so they go to the US anyways. Yeah. Or not. Case in point: China and every other Far East country that is under Chinese influence. Then again, they are special cases. But yeah, yours is a sound theory for the most part.
Open border would mean that besides a criminal background check, and a health check, you can waltz right into the US. The only reason someone would have for illegally immigrating would be if they knew they were diseased, or if they were a criminal, in which case they would be on the radars of law enforcement anyway. The overpopulation argument isn't really as interesting as the economic argument to me. If you look at immigration numbers, they historically go down during recessions, and up during good times. You can even see a huge drop-off during this current recession, from pre-recession immigration numbers. It stands to reason that opening our borders wouldn't change this basic function of supply and demand of the labor force.
So we let the vast hordes of unskilled laborers wander into the country? People who don't have jobs, are simply going to add to the masses of those seeking work but who can't find it, who will be able to use our social services, and who won't be able to pay taxes? I mean I can see it maybe working if they provide a large enough economic momentum, but how are they going to get the money to sustain their lifestyles in the first place? While immigration rates might fluctuate, the population of immigrants is going to permanently grow. We have an immediate population increase which will contribute to faster immigration. Overpopulation is a very legitimate concern here. Businesses would have to pay them a regular wage, which makes them just as unattractive as non-immigrant workers, but also increases the attractiveness of immigration. And people aren't going to ever emigrate from the States for better conditions, because there's nowhere to go (maybe Canada, but I doubt they'd take them). If we open the borders completely I think we'd be seeing an unprecedentedly massive influx of immigrants with expectations of high paying jobs, and without the financial ability to actually sustain themselves. I think hordes of shantytowns would spring up around major population centers and the development of an underclass (social and economic) is almost guaranteed.
I wonder if we've ever had an open borders policy that might somehow disprove the notion that immigrants will just come flowing in without regard to business cycles? Oh wait, we do.... Look up the Basero program, or immigration numbers from pre depression years. You see a few things, most notably, regardless of the border policy, immigration numbers fluctuate with regard to economic conditions. If there are no jobs to be had, people won't travel thousands of miles to uproot their families to the US... Also immigrants aren't privy to social services. Opening the borders doesn't change this, I'm not saying grant citizenship to anyone who comes here, just to allow them to come/live/work here. They still wont cause an undo burden (as they don't now) because even with a gigantic influx of people, they wouldn't be able to draw on any social welfare programs.
The situation in 1930 is quite different from today. People and information travel considerably more quickly and cheaply. If today we switched to a totally open border policy, as you suggest, then tomorrow we would see millions of people making their way north. We don't have the capacity for millions of jobless individuals to swarm the country, but that's exactly what would happen if we did this now. Regardless of the availability of jobs, people want a better life. The US isn't just a material place, but an idea, and people still hold onto things like the American Dream. If they could come here at no cost, then they would, and it would be in droves. I thought you were in favor of citizenship for all, sorry.
Yes and no, the vast majority of people go through incredibly hardships to get to the US. Some of that would be alleviated by opening our borders, but Central and south Americans would still have to deal with the horrors that occur along the devils highway, and Mexicans would still have to travel across Mexico and much of the US to get to their final destinations. We would see a temporary bubble in immigration for sure, but then numbers would stabilize to normal levels. I don't have the stat in front of me, but I remember reading in my immigration class, a statistic that basically said the average illegal immigrant only spends 3-5 years in America before going back to their home country. You could question the methodology, but according to DHS and ICE, most immigrants don't move here permanently. The majority of people don't come here for the American dream (at least not Hispanic immigrants), they come here for jobs - and if there aren't jobs, they don't come.
Limited immigration restrictions, easier to require citizenship, and most importantly No deportation.
