The Misguided Cruzade for Total Border Control [Open-Border Libertarians]

Reason.com ^ | March 31, 2015 | Shikha Dalmia

[SoConPubbie]

The Texas senator's fencing plans will impose a hefty cost on Americans

Sen. Ted Cruz launched his bid for the Republican presidential nomination last week by promising to "finally, finally, finally secure the borders" and put an end to unauthorized immigration. This will warm the hearts of restrictionists, no doubt. But it should scare Americans who love their pocketbooks and liberties more than they hate undocumented Latino immigrants.

Restrictionists accuse many of these immigrants of being welfare queens who come to America illegally and live off taxpayers. Cruz has contributed to the hysteria by proposing bills barring undocumented workers from ever receiving any means-tested benefits, presumably even after they become legal.

Accusations that undocumented Latinos strain the welfare system are a red herring. If anything, immigrants, legal and illegal, constitute something of a welfare windfall. How? By coming to this country during their peak working years, after another society has borne the cost of raising and educating them, they save our system a ton of money. Studies generally don't take this windfall effect into account, and still find that the economic contributions of low-skilled Latinos far outpace their welfare use. For example, a Texas comptroller study found that although unauthorized workers consumed about $504 million more in public services than they paid in taxes, without them, the Texas economy would shrink by 2.1 percent, or $17.7 billion. A full accounting of these folks would likely show them to be an even bigger economic boon (especially since the employment participation rate of Latino men is higher than the native born, and their overall welfare use is lower).

Meanwhile, as Cruz and his ilk whine about the (exaggerated) welfare costs of immigrants, they act as if their own plans to erect the Great Wall of China on the Rio Grande would be costless. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Cruz wants to establish "100 percent operational control" of America's southern border by completing a double-layer fence on the entire 2,000 miles, tripling the size of the border patrol, and quadrupling the number of helicopters and cameras.

This is beyond ill conceived. First of all, 45 percent of all illegal immigrants are visa over-stayers. So Cruz's efforts are totally irrelevant for nearly half of America's illegal immigrants. What's more, even the Berlin Wall, the most fortified border in modern history, was successfully breached 1,000 times every year. That rate will be a gazillion times greater on America's southern border, which is not a barren, open expanse of land. In fact, it has a varied and rugged terrain with mountains and valleys and national parks (one the size of Rhode Island) and rivers that the wall will have to hop, skip, and jump around.

The Rio Grande has myriad tributaries that feed millions of people on both sides of the border. If Cruz's wall is anything like the current 18-foot-high structure with rust-red hollow posts sunk six inches apart in a concrete base, it will have to stop several miles short on each side to avoid damming the watershed, leaving major openings for people to walk through.

And what would a double-wall cost taxpayers?

It is very difficult to get a full grip, but the construction cost alone of a single-layer fence on the 1,300 or so unfenced miles would likely be upwards of $6 billion (assuming, as per a CBO study, pedestrian fencing costs of $6.5 million per mile and vehicle fencing costs of $1.7 million per mile). Annual maintenance costs would be hundreds of millions more.Tripling the number of boots on the ground wouldn't be cheap either. President Obama has already deployed 20,000 border patrol agents, over twice more than he inherited.

Tripling this number would cost a whopping $7 billion or so more a year since, according to the CBO, the annual cost of an agent is about $171,400.

And the bill in dollars pales in comparison to the price Americans will have to pay in lost liberties.

Conservatives are outraged when the government confiscates private property for environmental or other ends. Indeed, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, a vile man with retrograde views on race, became an instant conservative hero when he stood up to Uncle Sam and let his cattle graze on land that the federal government had, in his view, illicitly obtained. Yet Cruz and his ilk have no qualms about authorizing Uncle Sam to perpetrate an even bigger property grab in the name of their Swiss-cheese wall.

Over half of the recently constructed 700 miles of fence was on private property that Uncle Sam deployed blatant strong-arm tactics to obtain. It confiscated ancestral land that had been in families for over 200 years and offered virtually peanuts to Texas landowners who couldn't afford to hire expensive lawyers to duke it out with Uncle Sam in court. Oscar Ceballos, a part-owner of a small trucking business, recounts how a government lawyer went so far as to figure out how much his assets were worth to dissuade a free legal clinic from representing him in his fight against the government's ridiculously low-ball initial offer. Cruz's even grander wall ambitions will only compound such abuse.

Nor would Americans on the border be the only ones affected. The vast majority of undocumented workers are here because there are Americans, especially employers, who benefit from their presence. Hence, Cruz and his fellow anti-immigration fighters want to force all American employers to verify the work eligibility of potential hires—American or foreign, legal or illegal—against a federal database through E-verify. Should this program become mandatory, all Americans will be effectively required to obtain a government permission slip to work.

What's ironic about Cruz's crusade to build a wall between two free—and friendly—people, divert billions of taxpayer dollars to militarize the border, and abrogate the civil rights of Americans is that he is doing so while vowing to "stand for liberty."

If this is his idea of liberty, what would tyranny look like under President Cruz? (Actually, don't answer that—I hope to never find out!)

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[SoConPubbie]

Ted Cruz Ping!

If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.

Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!

CRUZ or LOSE!

CRUZ or LOSE!

[MrB]

Do these people have locks on their doors and if so, why?

[Paladin2]

What’s a Shikha?

[cdcdawg]

Because all of those Mexicans are going to vote for smaller government ..... or something? This is where reality smacks the libertarians, which is amazing, because their patron saint (Rand) described their paradise (Galt’s Gulch) as having rather restrictive immigration policies (you had to be invited).

[Rusty0604]

“although unauthorized workers consumed about $504 million more in public services than they paid in taxes, without them, the Texas economy would shrink by 2.1 percent, or $17.7 billion.”

Well someone has to pay for the $504 million shortfall, so that would be the actual taxpayers. And I don’t know if those “public services” include education for all their children. I doubt it or it would be more. That means the schools have to borrow more money and raise taxes on the citizens.

[thorvaldr]

Basically, he says “build a fence” because he’s allowed to say build a fence. How hard do you think the chamber of commerce would fight him if he said “don’t give illegals driver licenses and tax ID’s, don’t treat them in hospitals, don’t let their children in public schools, definitely don’t give them in state tuition, and most of all arrest, fine and imprison anyone who hires them instead of hiring a legal American.” That’s the solution, that’s how countries other than the US make sure they don’t have this problem.

[Rapscallion]

The Texas senator's fencing plans will impose a hefty cost on Americans

Nowhere near as much as the cost of millions of illegals sucking America dry.

[American Constitutionalist]

THE CRUZADES !

Love it.

[moehoward]

"a Texas comptroller study found that although unauthorized workers consumed about $504 million more in public services than they paid in taxes, without them, the Texas economy would shrink by 2.1 percent"

This is right up there with Pelosi saying welfare payments are the "biggest stimuluses" in the economy.

[eyeamok]

You gotta love these fools, I propose we get a petition drive going to force REASON Magazine and ALL THEIR EMPLOYEES to immediately have every LOCK REMOVED on all their Businesses and Homes. See how they like it then.

[rfreedom4u]

Have all illegals that are caught sentenced to work on the border fence for three years. When their time is up send them home.

[DesertRhino]

She’s real bright. Look closely at her poster. It says nearly half of illegal immigrants enter illegally.

[concerned about politics]

Yeah! Build that fence asap.

U.S. signed agreement with Mexico to teach immigrants to unionize

"The federal government has signed agreements with three foreign countries — Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines — to establish outreach programs to teach immigrants their rights to engage in labor organizing in the U.S. The agreements do not distinguish between those who entered legally or illegally. They are part of a broader effort by the National Labor Relations Board to get immigrants involved in union activism. "

[BrewingFrog]

The numbers utilized in this screed are, as usual, complete and utter crap. Illegals are a sinkhole and contribute little (if anything) to the tax base, while sucking money out of the system via Social Services, education and health care. The author does not even have a decent handle on how many illegals there actually are, only fictitious numbers from illegal-friendly “sources.”

[Dead Corpse]

If you can’t control your border, you don’t HAVE a Country.

That being said, I also approve of the US annexing both Mexico and Canada.

[TADSLOS]

Reason Magazine should be sued for abusing it’s own name.

[Kartographer]

[Envisioning]

Spot on!

[KC_Lion]

(Galt’s Gulch) as having rather restrictive immigration policies (you had to be invited).

Stop Making Sense!

Stop It!