Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

I have to admit that for a long time I didn’t have much enthusiasm for discussing immigration. That was mostly because I never really took a definitive side on this issue, until recently. It seemed as if most libertarians were open borders types, until I discovered that Murray Rothbard wasn’t at all a fan of open borders and even more recently, L. Neil Smith reversed his own long held position on open border immigration and now supports Trump’s proposal for a border wall.

I did see the point that the open borders crowd made about immigration being beneficial in some areas and that it is at times a waste of resources to keep deporting people, only to have them come back across the border within less than a week. I was also skeptical about the idea of a border wall because I was afraid of the government spending billions on a lemon that will do nothing to curb illegal immigration. The problem with the open borders crowd was that they never seem to acknowledge the problems that come with having unvetted immigration. They can never seem to comprehend why not everybody was willing to welcome illegal immigrants with open arms.

When I first heard about the Minute Men, a civilian militia dedicated to curving illegal immigration, I actually felt somewhat sympathetic towards the group. I knew that the militia was made up of citizens who actually lived near the border and have encountered all kinds of problems from the illegal aliens, who didn’t seem to have much respect for private property or the law. Yet, if you listen to anyone on the left as well their cronies in the media, you would have thought that the Minute Men were taking potshots at the illegals because they didn’t want more brown people crossing the border. I remember this Hispanic feminist who once spoke at my college campus (her name escapes me), actually had the nerve to compare the Minute Men to the KKK.

 My biggest disappointment didn’t come from the left, since yelling racist at their opponents is about the only tactic that they seem to have up their sleeves. It came from Penn & Teller, when they dedicated an episode of their show, Bullshit to illegal immigration.  I knew that since both of them were open borders libertarians, the episode was going to be biased to that position, though I found myself disappointed when they didn’t even bother to show The Minute Men’s side of the argument. They showed the Minute Men meeting near the border to catch illegal immigrants and for the most part these men came off as being relatively polite, at least that was until it was pointed out that they were all white. This is the kind of nonsense that I have come to expect from the left, but to have Penn & Teller use racism as a way of shutting down an argument was beyond disappointing. I think it’s easy for people not living at the edge of the border and don’t have to worry about the destruction of their property or have their lives threatened by the criminal element that comes with unvetted immigration, to pass judgement on those who find themselves in these situations on a daily basis. It’s unlikely that these people would care if these illegals were from Mexico or Canada. They just want the insanity to stop. Even if you thought the actions of the Minute Men were misguided, you should at least understand where they are coming from. By the way, the biggest opponents to illegal immigration are not white citizens who were born in this country, but legal immigrants who had to jump through all kinds of legal hurtles to gain citizenship, only to see herds of people bypassing these same hurtles by pretending that the laws don’t apply to them.

After years of being on the fence about this issue, there are three main reasons why I have come to the conclusion that the idea of an open border isn’t feasible, at least not in our current climate. One of them being the attitude of entitlement that I see from the immigrants coming from South of the border. I remember seeing old footage of Italian families coming into this country waving American flags, as if they were grateful to have arrived in the Land of Opportunity. Compare that to the immigrants who waved Mexican flags and chanted “Viva Mexico” during the immigration protests of 2006 or the DACA protestors who blocked the entrance of Disney World because they apparently believe that citizenship is something that is owed to them. Then you have immigration activists who continue to demand things, such as bilingual schools, free healthcare and pretty much any other type of entitlement that can be imagined. Not only do I find it arrogant that these people think they have the right to demand entitlements while ignoring the laws of this country, but I find it downright destructive. I think Milton Friedman was right when he said that Open Borders can’t exist in a country that has a massive welfare state. For those of you who think I am being insensitive or xenophobic, I challenge you to go down to Mexico to wave an American flag and demand freebies from their government. You would likely end up in a Mexican prison.

The Open Borders crowd also seems to show a total indifference to the criminal element that attaches itself to the migration of illegal immigrants that come across the border every day. It ’s not to say that all illegal immigrants are criminals who want to make trouble. I am willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of them are honest, hardworking people who just want to lead productive lives. Unfortunately, whenever you have a massive migration of people, you always find a small group of criminals that hide among the law-biding. Whenever somebody shows the slightest concern for this problem, he is either dismissed outright or like in Donald Trump’s case is branded a racist for daring to bring it up. If you don’t believe that this is a problem then I would suggest spending some time at the border and see what the residents have to go through day after day.

Though I would have to say that my biggest worry doesn ’t actually come from the people migrating from the South of the Border as much as it does from those coming from the Middle East. For those of you who are about to accuse me of Islamophobia, I am not going to dignify you with a “Not All” Hashtag. It should be obvious that I am talking about certain extremists who want to see the West destroyed and not the people who just want to pray five times a day. Unfortunately, as it has been demonstrated in Europe, there are enough extremists to take over entire sections of cities to create Muslim Only zones where Sharia Law is enforced and non-Muslims are not welcomed. Even first responders such as police, firemen and EMS drivers aren’t welcomed into their communities. We are even starting to see these same problems in Dearborn, Michigan. Yet, the Open Borders crowd never seems to have an answer for dealing with immigrants who not only have no desire to assimilate into our society, but want to see it severely altered or completely destroyed.

I want to point out that even though I don’t believe that Open Borders is particularly feasible in this current climate, I am not entirely against the idea of having Open Borders, if we manage to abolish our welfare state and privatize at least ninety-percent of all public property. Recently, I saw one of Lauren Southern’s video’s where she echoed some of the same thoughts I had about Open Borders libertarians. They want to open the borders before we even get a chance to solve any of the problems that I just mentioned. Right now, Open Borders would just compound our problems. First let us worry about preserving Western Civilization, so we will have the opportunity to work our way towards a libertarian society. Once that is done, then we can consider opening the borders, but only then.