There’s been a lot of discussion in the libertarian crowd about Trump’s immigration policy and whether libertarians should support open borders. The tension is between the ideal of freedom of movement, in the context of private property, versus the practical effect that importing many people costs taxpayers money and may lead to voting for more government.
Supposedly a private property society would result in border property owners blocking immigrants, but as my cover meme shows, it just takes one to let people through. So, strictly from an ethical perspective, open borders seems the right choice. The practical effects in a welfare state democracy are a different issue. Once you start going down the utilitarianism road though, you use “ends justifies the means” reasoning and eventually end up back at statism. It seems the best solution, and political compromise, would be to allow open borders on the condition that immigrants receive no government benefits or voting rights. We’d be slowly importing supporters of a voluntary society!
