The Prohibitive Cost of Armed Federal Deportations
The U.S. was the first country in world history to be founded on skepticism about politicians. Implied in openness to foreigners who shared the origin view was a belief that people weren’t poor as…
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Essays
Writing by John Tamny and Parkview contributors, from the latest commentary to the collected archive.
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To Deport Immigrants to Congo and South Sudan Is To Kill Them
“Please, Mr. Tim. I have a huge favour to ask. My son, my four-year-old, has no future here…Please will you take him with you to South Africa and give him a new life.” That was Oggi, a Congolese…
Immigration, and the “Failed State” Immigration Fallacy
In 1948 South Korea had per capita income of $48, a level of earnings that placed its economics below those of sub-Saharan African countries. At the time one U.S. official concluded that “Korea can…
More Than Any Ideology, Conservatives Should Revere Immigrants
Immigrants will do work that Americans won’t. That’s what defenders and critics of immigration say. Which means even defenders miss what is arguably the bigger, more pertinent positive about…
Is the U.S.’s Reputation (and Its Economy) Worth the Deportations?
“I need my papa!” That’s what a five-year old Mexican child said to her mother, according to the Washington Post. Her father had been deported. How to explain to a small child why your father isn’t…
An Unrivaled American Work Ethic Is a Powerful Immigrant Magnet
An insatiable American work ethic is what attracts immigrants to the United States. So, when Americans lament the arrival of would-be workers, they’re in a very real sense yelling at themselves. Work…
If Immigrants Imported Failure, Then They Wouldn’t Be Immigrants
Immigrants, particularly immigrants from what President Trump has described as “Sthole Countries,” are rejecting those “Stholes.” That’s why they’re immigrants. Yet it’s long been the norm to assume…
David Bier Is Correct About Immigrants, Incorrect That They Lower Debt
The minute immigrants touch land in the United States, their economic value soars. That’s because the workers, machinery and training that they get to match their talents with in the U.S. well…
Regardless of Your Stance, the “Border” Insults the Immigration Discussion
If “the border” informs your thoughts about immigration, then your mind is wandering. Seriously, how often have you crossed the border (on foot, no less) to go to work in or visit any other city,…
If Border Closure Is Such Great Politics, What Happened On 11/4?
Deportations and border closures were political losers for President Trump and the Republicans. That’s because voters vote their pocketbooks. More than a few who read this opinion piece’s opening…
ICE Raids Sanctify Layabouts at the Expense of Doers
Writing in 1984 (“Subsidizing Egos”), Thomas Sowell observed how “thousands of poorly educated Mexicans cross the border every week and go right to work.” Sowell went on to ask how “people new to the…
Trump Can Have Booming Growth or Deportations, Not Both
People drive economic growth. Which means President Trump’s problem isn’t the Fed, it’s his own administration’s deportations. Trump wants economic growth, but he doesn’t want the people who make…
Let’s Please Not Insult Immigration With “High-Skilled” Central Plans
“High-skilled immigration is key to America’s success.” That’s what Richard Hanania writes at the Cato Institute’s excellent Human Progress page. Hanania is not alone in making what he might agree is…
Americans Don’t Hate Immigrants, They Hate Central Planning
Americans loathe lines. See their disdain for the gasoline lines of the 1970s, and that were an effect of price controls naively meant to contain the cruel effects of a devalued dollar. What’s funny…
Robots Will Make the Need for Immigrants More Urgent Than Ever
It’s so easily forgotten that people aren’t a cost. They’re an input, always and everywhere, and this truth won’t lose any validity as robots proliferate. Quite the opposite. Which is why it’s useful…
Love or Hate Immigrants, They Do Not Drive Down Wages
Immigration to the U.S. is by its name a wage positive. It’s tautological. Higher wages are what instigate immigration, so to pretend as some do that the arrival of immigrants pushes down wages…
Albania, Greece, and the Rich Person Mindset of Immigrants
Immigrants are almost monolithically poor, but they have the mindset of a rich person. That’s why they’re immigrants. They want better, and will do what it takes to get better. What’s written above…
The ICE Raids Are Anti-Business, Anti-Conservative, and Anti-American
“Acouple employees left for the rest of the day. They were pretty rattled.” Those were the words of multi-restaurant owner and Georgetown Events Hospitality Group president Bo Blair, in a Washington…
Immigration, ‘Unskilled’ Workers, and the Yuma, AZ Fallacy
Highly emotional members of the left have been known to bemoan immense wealth. Possessing a fixed pie, zero sum view of the world, they imagine that wealth is taken as opposed to being created. …
Deportation of Mexicans Will Result In More Mexicans In the U.S.
The view here is that mass deportation of Mexicans from the United States will ultimately result in quite a few more Mexicans searching for a way to get to the United States than before. It’s basic…
It’s Southern Border-Style ‘Policy’ That Immigrants Are Escaping
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has taken to blaming the Republicans for problems associated with a surge of immigrants at the southern border. Republicans have hit back. One editorial…
On the Matter of Immigration, Nicholas Kristof Plays Conservatives Like a Stradivarius
Who needs Karl Marx when you have Nicholas Kristof playing conservatives so brilliantly?
Guns Don’t Kill People, Neither Do Immigrants
In reality, one Jose Antoio Ibarra is being charged with committing an incredibly despicable act. Immigrants shouldn’t own his sickness any more than gun owners should own the acts of mass shooters.…
Humans Are Capital, Which Means There’s No ‘Crisis’ of Migrants
Is the crisis of the moment one of people who want better, or government trying to plan the market signal that is the arrival of people who want better?