Scott Kamps
Our country was founded on principles of self-government, not expert rule.
This places a civil duty on citizens to be informed on issues that pertain to the government’s responsibilities.
I’m no expert on immigration, but many common sense principles should be acknowledged regarding immigration. Our country benefits from immigration (I get my internet service from a South African immigrant), but the process needs to be ordered and limited to be a positive thing, both for the nation and immigrants.
Americans should recognize one of the powers the Constitution grants to the federal government (Congress) is “to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization;” which implies the responsibility to control immigration.
So it’s incumbent on the federal government to protect our borders.
The principles surrounding immigration are paralleled in family government. As individuals have rights and responsibilities in regard to property (homes or businesses), so the United States is seen as a single entity in relation to other nations. Principles regarding our national sovereignty are similar – although on a larger scale – to a man’s rights/responsibilities in regard to his property.
These similarities help us understand the basic principles of immigration:
* Like I have the right to restrict ingress to my house from outsiders, a society has the right to restrict ingress to their nation.
* Like the principle of consent can grant household access to an outsider, there must be consent between a society and someone who wants to immigrate here. The principle of consent must go both ways: just as a person can’t impose and live in my house without my consent, neither can a foreigner impose and live in a society without the society’s consent (as an illegal alien). And just as I can’t force a person to live in my house apart from their consent, a society can’t force an alien to live in their society apart from their consent (as in slavery).
* Like it would be irrational for me to neglect my home while spending a fortune to protect my neighbor’s, the latest $118 billion immigration bill (blocked by Republicans in the Senate on Feb. 7) lacks sense. It’s absurd to spend 75 billion to protect the borders of Ukraine and Israel while only allocating 20 billion to our own border crisis.
* If I bought a house, promptly removed the front door and was overrun by uninvited outsiders, I would not need to have a family meeting to stop the flow of intruders: I simply would need to put the front door back on. Likewise, Biden doesn’t need an immigration bill or more money to reinstate the effective Trump policies that he ended on his first day in office.
* If I allowed a ridiculous amount of outsiders into my house, it’d change the character of my home; likewise, too many outsiders who are unwilling to assimilate (those who ignore our immigration laws are not likely to conform to other American values) will keep their language, habits and principles, changing the character of our nation.
Scott Kamps writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, thestableguy@frontier.com.