When I advocate for open borders, people accuse me of being a socialist, in spite of the fact that:

• No socialist country has ever had open borders.
• Open borders is the doctrine taught in Scripture.
• The federal government is not given the power to regulate immigration in the Constitution.
• One of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence is that the king was trying to limit immigration.
• The U.S.A. had open borders until the 1920s leading to unprecedented economic growth.

But does a good socialist, who wants to control wages believe in open borders? There might be some, I don’t know, but here is Bernie himself showing that he wants to control the labor market by controlling the border.

I’m talking to a guy who is a knowledgeable Christian, but has just been duped.  His arguments are so bad they’re almost funny. Here is my last response to him.

You espouse the policies of Karl Marx and mock the policies of Thomas Jefferson, and I’m the traitor? You’ve been tricked into advocating socialism, and you don’t even realize it.

I think I responded to your arguments before you made them, but I will reiterate. The U.S. had completely open borders. The first limitation to immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. One of the freest, most capitalist countries in the history of the world had open borders.

You’ll notice Rev. 21:25 says, “On no day will its gates ever be shut…” The gates are never closed. It’s saying that everyone is free to come and go. Ancient Jerusalem had a wall for defensive purposes, but there were Israelites outside the city. It wasn’t a border where they would keep people in or out. Using this passage is a really bad argument.

Maybe Matthew 16:18 better serves your argument: “the gates of hell will not prevail…” Hell is here described as having a wall with closed gates. You’re advocating the policies of Satan, Marx, Stalin, Kim Jung Un, etc.

There is another country that had a perfect law, and maximum human freedom, with civil laws written by God–ancient Israel. They had open borders. If you’re advocating government’s right to regulate non-sinful activities, you’re advocating for the government of the beast (Rev. 13:17).

Free markets with unmanipulated price action are what causes individuals to make the best decisions about where they should live so that their labor benefits society and their family the most.

1. Can you name a communist country that has/had open borders?
2. What acts (other than crossing a border) that aren’t sinful should the government be allowed to regulate (keeping in mind Romans 13:3-4 says they can’t punish good deeds, only evil deeds)?
3. What was the civil penalty for crossing ancient Israel’s border?
4. How were Israelites to treat sojourners?

I keep thinking about the documentary I once saw interviewing East Germans about their thoughts after East Germany fell, and they were going to be reunified with a much more capitalist West Germany. They couldn’t imagine how they could survive without big government in their lives. Freedom can be scary.

I see the same thing with conservatives on so many topics, like the one in this conversation about borders. I made the point that The founding fathers had open borders, and that Scripture teaches open borders. The immediate reaction of conservatives is the same as those East Germans. They have no faith in free markets. They have so much fear, and expose themselves as socialists.

I thought this was a good, short example of that.

These two paragraphs sum up all my arguments for open borders.

Scripture teaches open borders. The Constitution doesn’t give congress the power to regulate immigration–only naturalization. The founding fathers listed immigration restrictions as one of the reasons for secession in the Declaration of Independence.

It’s not a sin to hire a foreigner or cross a border, and it shouldn’t be illegal (Romans 13:3-4). Conservatives have been duped into espousing big-government, central-control of labor markets. All socialist countries have closed borders. The USA had open borders until the 1920s and lead to unprecedented economic growth.

I happened across this article, and it is excellent.

Here’s a quote:

Immigrants today often move here with no money and no job, and not knowing anyone. That’s bravery to me. It’s a risk that “C” students, the dullards, don’t ever take. Immigrants tend to be highly ambitious and brave persons, which explains why they are more likely than native-born Americans to risk starting up their own businesses. Today, immigrants are the brave people needed to populate the “home of the brave”.

The most oft repeated command in Scripture is, “Do not fear.”

If your argument is that the freedoms the founding fathers gave us no longer apply, you aren’t a conservative. Or, maybe you are a conservative and, conservatism is now the enemy of America. I don’t know, but I’d like to consider myself a conservative who wants small government and cares about the founding principles that made this country great. You would think a Tea Party group would be the perfect place for me, but apparently not.

Here is Bo answering objections to a lady that said that having open borders is like leaving your front door unlocked. The following is Bo speaking, anything in quotes is the lady giving the objections:

We the citizens want to know who is coming and what they may be capable of? Well, that’s what the leftists say: “We the citizens want to know who has guns and what they can do with those guns.” The government is supposed to work for us, right? Simple common sense.

“That’s all……they need to go about coming here the right way, legally….”

You don’t know the law. There is no legal way to come, for most of them. The law is a socialist law, designed by Ted Kennedy to favor the trade unions. All the immigration laws in this country were designed by socialists. Before America had socialists in power, it was open borders.

“Are you willing to open the doors of your home for just the first ones who get there to move in among your family, eat your food, take the clothes you provided for your family, take your vehicle whenever they want, etc??????
There is no difference…..”

There is no difference????? There is no difference between a private owner owning his home and the government owning the land??? Are you serious? I used to hear that concept back in Eastern Europe, before 1989, under Communism. And I hear it hear it now in America, from Christians??? You believe the government is the owner of the land??? That is the dictionary definition of socialism. Since when are American Christians socialists?

“The people we put in office should do whatever is necessary to protect us and ours…..”

So if they decide that “whatever necessary” is murdering unborn babies, are you OK with that? Or arresting abortion protesters? Who decides what is necessary? Can the government violate the Law of God while “protecting” you? How safe are you under a government that makes arbitrary laws, criminalizing what the Bible doesn’t criminalize?

My theory is that at some point since Ronald Reagan, restricting immigration switched from being a liberal position to the conservative position. How should we test that theory?

There have been countries in the past, and the present, that are a liberal dream come true, and countries that have been a conservative dream come true.

Did the liberal dream countries have open borders or closed borders? The USSR, North Korea, Cuba, and the Eastern European satellite countries, all had closed borders.

The conservative dream countries, the U.S.A. at its founding (not minimizing the shameful history of slavery) had completely open borders until 1882.

So there you have it. Consistent liberalism means closed borders. Consistent conservatism means open borders.