Not quite what you’re asking, but up until about the 1870s, the US had effectively unrestricted immigration.
Some economist at the Cato Institute, Alex Newrath or something like that, did some interview with NPR Planet Money a few years back and estimated what potential immigration would be if restrictions were dropped.
ALEX NOWRASTEH: My dream setup would be a system whereby only criminals, suspected terrorists and those with serious communicable diseases - like, you know, drug-resistant tuberculosis - are barred from coming to the United States to live and work.
KESTENBAUM: This, he says, it’s not as crazy as it sounds.
NOWRASTEH: The United States had a system like that from roughly 1790 to about 1882.
KESTENBAUM: It was the law of the land for almost 100 years of American history. Open borders would be great for the economy, he says, and you wouldn’t have to worry about people risking their lives crossing the border. If you are wondering how many people would come, Nowrasteh says there are some polls, asking people around the world, would you like to move to the U.S.
There were a lot of yeses.
NOWRASTEH: About five to 700 million.
KESTENBAUM: So that would more than double, triple the population.
NOWRASTEH: That would, but, you know, you have to take a big grain of salt with that.
KESTENBAUM: Nowrasteh figures more like 50 million and 100 million people would actually want to move here and stay. And thought that would be fine. Compared with Europe, he says, we have a relatively big and empty country. What chances do you give this passing in Congress?
NOWRASTEH: About zero. Of, you know, the type of thing I want right now, somewhere near to zero.
How do you have open borders and yet restrict criminals or suspected terrorists from entering? Either you have no restrictions or you have some restrictions. If you have some restrictions then you will have illegals that need to be deported which means you will need some kind of enforcement to do the deporting. There is no feasible way to run a modern country with truly open borders.
You leave the borders open. If a terrorist comes across the border, you send the police to arrest them. You arrest criminals and prosecute them. Why is this so hard? You only need a completely separate organization if you want to control the numbers of people coming into the country. If you don’t care who comes, and just want to make sure there aren’t violent criminals coming in, the police are more than capable of handling that.
You require documentation so you can check if they have a criminal past. If there’s no documentation then treat them like someone on parole and give them an ankle monitor. It’s not rocket science, we just our politicians’ job security depends on not fixing problems.
Seriously. This person is using the right wing strawman version of open borders. We had open borders in the 19th century, but there was still a customs office. You still had to show up, register, and declare yourself. And they filtered out what criminals they could back then. Open borders simply means that anyone is able to come if they’re a law-abiding person.
Not quite what you’re asking, but up until about the 1870s, the US had effectively unrestricted immigration.
Some economist at the Cato Institute, Alex Newrath or something like that, did some interview with NPR Planet Money a few years back and estimated what potential immigration would be if restrictions were dropped.
searches
Alex Nowrasteh.
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/172501563
How do you have open borders and yet restrict criminals or suspected terrorists from entering? Either you have no restrictions or you have some restrictions. If you have some restrictions then you will have illegals that need to be deported which means you will need some kind of enforcement to do the deporting. There is no feasible way to run a modern country with truly open borders.
You leave the borders open. If a terrorist comes across the border, you send the police to arrest them. You arrest criminals and prosecute them. Why is this so hard? You only need a completely separate organization if you want to control the numbers of people coming into the country. If you don’t care who comes, and just want to make sure there aren’t violent criminals coming in, the police are more than capable of handling that.
You require documentation so you can check if they have a criminal past. If there’s no documentation then treat them like someone on parole and give them an ankle monitor. It’s not rocket science, we just our politicians’ job security depends on not fixing problems.
Seriously. This person is using the right wing strawman version of open borders. We had open borders in the 19th century, but there was still a customs office. You still had to show up, register, and declare yourself. And they filtered out what criminals they could back then. Open borders simply means that anyone is able to come if they’re a law-abiding person.