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There’s Nothing Wrong with Open Borders

Why a brave Democrat should make the case for vastly expanding immigration.

By Farhad Manjoo

Opinion Columnist

The New York Times January 16, 2019

The internet expands the bounds of acceptable discourse, so ideas considered out

of bounds not long ago now rocket toward widespread acceptability. See: cannabis

legalization, government-run health care, white nationalism and, of course, the flat-

earthers.

Yet there’s one political shore that remains stubbornly beyond the horizon. It’s an

idea almost nobody in mainstream politics will address, other than to hurl the label

as a bloody cudgel.

I’m talking about opening up America’s borders to everyone who wants to move

here.

Imagine not just opposing President Trump’s wall but also opposing the nation’s

cruel and expensive immigration and border-security apparatus in its entirety.

Imagine radically shifting our stance toward outsiders from one of suspicion to one

of warm embrace. Imagine that if you passed a minimal background check, you’d

be free to live, work, pay taxes and die in the United States. Imagine moving from

Nigeria to Nebraska as freely as one might move from Massachusetts to Maine.

There’s a witheringly obvious moral, economic, strategic and cultural case for

open borders, and we have a political opportunity to push it. As Democrats jockey

for the presidency, there’s room for a brave politician to oppose President Trump’s

racist immigration rhetoric not just by fighting his wall and calling for the

abolishment of I.C.E. but also by making a proactive and affirmative case for the

vast expansion of immigration.

It would be a change from the stale politics of the modern era, in which both

parties agreed on the supposed wisdom of “border security” and assumed that

immigrants were to be feared.

As an immigrant, this idea confounds me. My family came to the United States

from our native South Africa in the late 1980s. After jumping through lots of

expensive and confusing legal hoops, we became citizens in 2000. Obviously, it

was a blessing: In rescuing me from a society in which people of my color were

systematically oppressed, America has given me a chance at liberty.

But why had I deserved that chance, while so many others back home — because

their parents lacked certain skills, money or luck — were denied it?

When you see the immigration system up close, you’re confronted with its

bottomless unfairness. The system assumes that people born outside our borders

are less deserving of basic rights than those inside. My native-born American

friends did not seem to me to warrant any more dignity than my South African

ones; according to this nation’s founding documents, we were all created equal.

Yet by mere accident of geography, some were given freedom, and others were

denied it.

“When you start to think about it, a system of closed borders begins to feel very

much like a system of feudal privilege,” said Reece Jones, a professor of

geography at the University of Hawaii who argues that Democrats should take up

the mantle of open borders. “It’s the same idea that there’s some sort of hereditary

rights to privilege based on where you were born.”

I admit the politics here are perilous. Although America’s borders were open for

much of its history — if your ancestors came here voluntarily, there’s a good

chance it was thanks to open borders — restrictions on immigration are now baked

so deeply into our political culture that any talk of loosening them sparks anger.

People worry that immigrants will bring crime, even though stats show immigrants

are no more dangerous than natives. People worry they’ll take jobs away from

native workers, even though most studies suggests that immigration is a profound

benefit to the economy, and there’s little evidence it hurts native workers. And if

we worry that they’ll hoover up welfare benefits, we can impose residency

requirements for them.

But these are all defensive arguments, and when you’re on defense, you’re losing.

For opponents of the president’s xenophobic policies, a better plan is to make the

affirmative case for a lot more immigrants.

Economically and strategically, open borders isn’t just a good plan — it’s the only

chance we’ve got. America is an aging nation with a stagnant population. We have

ample land to house lots more people, but we are increasingly short of workers.

And on the global stage, we face two colossi — India and China — which, with

their billions, are projected to outstrip American economic hegemony within two

decades.

How will we ever compete with such giants? The same way we always have: by

inviting the world’s most enthusiastic and creative people — including the people

willing to walk here, to risk disease and degradation and death to land here — to

live out their best life under liberty.

A new migrant caravan is forming in Honduras, and the president is itching for the

resulting political fight.

Here’s hoping Democrats respond with creativity and verve. Not just “No wall.”

Not just “Abolish ICE.”

Instead: “Let them in.”

Farhad Manjoo became an opinion columnist for The Times in 2018. Before that, he wrote the State of the Art column. He is the author of “True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society.”