53 dead in San Antonio. Stop and think about that. Stop and think about how the 53 died. For most of us a mere 10 minutes without air conditioning is unbearable during the summer months. How long did these striving, would-be Americans endure temperatures much greater in the back of a crowded truck before dying? Regardless of your political persuasion, or your opinion on immigration, the tragedy from late last month must bring on nausea.
Naturally both sides politicized the tragedy. There were comments about President Biden’s allegedly failed border policies from the Right, no doubt the desire among some Republicans to build a “wall” will be bruited by the Left-leaning as evidence of the risks immigrants must take to get here, but the reality is that both ideologies should hang their heads in shame. What happened indicts both sides, though arguably not for reasons traditionally offered.
Let’s start with members of the Left who claim wealth inequality is harmful to the poor. Apparently those sweating to death in the truck didn’t agree. At which point let’s agree that the U.S. is easily the most wealth unequal major country in the world. Let’s then agree that as evidenced by last month’s tragedy, the world’s poorest routinely risk their lives to reach the world’s most wealth unequal country. It’s a powerful signal, though an inconvenient one for members of the Left. If they’re lucky enough to get into the United States, the world’s poorest regularly migrate to where the richest people in the world’s richest country live and work. That’s where the opportunity is. Inequality is a country feature, not a bug. About this truth, members of the Right shouldn’t be so smug.
Ever since President Biden came into office they’ve lamented America’s allegedly growing embrace of “socialism,” and the subsequent failure of “Bidenomics.” The relentless flow of the world’s poorest into the U.S. is similarly inconvenient for them. Where people go in search of opportunity is easily the most powerful market signal in the world, and people aren’t coming here because the economy is awful. To which some unwilling to quit while they’re ahead will say that these desperately poor people come here for freebies. Really? Why then, did the inflow of immigrants stop during lockdowns related to the coronavirus (by the way, who was president when this tragic taking of freedom took place?), and why did more Mexicans return to Mexico during the first five years of Barack Obama’s presidency than crossed the border into the U.S.? The answer to both questions is that the arrival of the tired and hungry from south of the border ceases when the economy is weak. It’s a reminder that the only truly effective solution to keeping immigrants out is to crush the economy with policies that strangle growth. Which brings us back to the Left.
Full of themselves for their alleged love of the poor, they regularly call for tax policy meant to neuter the rich. Even though immigrants innately know that opportunity is greatest where the density of the wealth unequal is greatest, the Left leaning lustily cheer policymakers long on ideas meant to chop those who create opportunity at the knees. Inequality is supposedly bad for the poor. See above. Back to reality, there are no companies and no jobs without investment first. The rich, by virtue of being rich, have by far the greatest capacity to invest. To put a bull’s eye on them is to limit economic opportunity for those with the least, the most. Taxing the rich is anti-immigrant.
Notable about when this immigrant tragedy happened is that Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court at around the same time. Members of the Right in particular cheered the Court’s decision to return debates about the legality of abortion to the states. The decision would protect the unborn. Without wading into the abortion debate, can it at least be asked why conservatives cheer state-enforced limits on abortion while also cheering political promises to close the border? Why are unborn children so precious but living human beings not so much? And for those who say they merely want “legal” immigration, there’s dishonesty in the previous proclamation that resembles the Left’s alleged love of poor people. That is so because laws against immigration explain why 53 people died in a truck that lacked air conditioning. If immigration laws were even kind of reasonable, the simple truth is that living humans wouldn’t have to suffer so cruelly (and sometimes die) in pursuit of a better life in the United States.
Which brings us to jobs. Members of the Right talk of “protecting American jobs” as a reason to restrict immigration, but Bernie Sanders on the Left has done the same. Both sides misunderstand simple economics. Jobs aren’t finite as much as they’re a logical consequence of investment. After which, the only closed economy is the world economy, which means that the best way to “protect American jobs” from “low-wage countries” is to encourage the inflow of the world’s strivers into the United States. That is so because the minute an immigrant sets foot on American soil, his or her productivity soars thanks to abundant investment in productivity advances stateside. Put another way, if you fear low-wage workers not in the United States, let them work in the United States legally.
By opening the U.S. up, markets will be allowed to work on the question of immigration. Which is the point. Immigration is a market phenomenon. When the U.S. is booming, people want to be here. A failure by both sides to acknowledge this truth about markets and immigration increasingly carries with it a body count; one that indicts both dominant ideologies.
