National Review Online
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Restriction Fiction [Mark Krikorian]

Derb: Your e-mailer extolling the wonders of free immigration wrote that "For the first half of America's history, there were no restrictions on immigration." This is a common line of reasoning from our libertarian friends, and it's horseflop.

First of all, starting in colonial times there were laws against admitting immigrants likely to become a public charge (and in the modern redistributive state, any immigrant without a high-school degree will, almost by definition, become a public charge).

But more basic is this: For the first half of America's history, there were few legal restrictions on immigration, but strict, unappealable practical restrictions — i.e., it was very hard to get here. As the practical restrictions effectively disappeared due to advances in technology, legal restrictions were developed to take their place. If it had been as easy to get here two centuries ago as today, immigration would have been limited then, too.

04/28 01:49 PM

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