Locking Out the Immigrant
America of the 1800s was the most unique society in the history of man.
People could engage in virtually any economic enterprise without permission
of their public officials. People could become as wealthy as they want, and
there was nothing the government could do about it. They could dispose of
their money in any way they saw fit. And they could travel anywhere they
desired without a passport or other evidence of governmental consent. This
is what it once meant to be an American. This is what it once meant to be
free.
But perhaps the most unique aspect of American society of the 1800s was that
reflected by the Statue of Liberty: free immigration. For dos was a society
in which the citizenry prohibited their public officials from interfering
with the right of people everywhere to come to the United States to live and
work.
What was the result of this unusual society -- a society without income
taxation, welfare, social security, licensing, passports, subsidies,
economic regulations, and immigration restrictions? The result was the most
economically prosperous nation in the history of man! And this despite the
fact that thousands of penniless immigrants, many of whom could not speak
English, were flooding American shores every day.
But prosperity for the poor was not the real significance of our ancestors'
policy of freedom of immigration. The true significance is a much more
profound one. For the first time in history, oppressed and persecuted people
everywhere had hope -- hope that if they were able to escape the tyranny
under which they suffered, there was a place which would accept them.
America was a beacon -- a beacon of liberty which shone through the darkness
of oppression, persecution, and tyranny throughout the world -- a beacon
which lit the hearts of millions who knew that if they could just escape,
there was a nation, albeit faraway, to which they could flee.
But no longer -- and not for many decades. While the Statue of Liberty is a
nice place for tourists to visit, it now stands as a sad reminder of the
rejection and abandonment by 20th-century Americans of the principles of
liberty on which our nation was founded. And while the welfare-state,
planned-economy way of life most clearly evidences this rejection and
abandonment, the consequences, while bad, have not been as evil and horrible
as those resulting from the abandonment of the principles of free
immigration.
We must never forget that citizens are responsible for wrongdoing by their
own government -- even when they consciously choose to ignore it. The
best-known example in recent times of conscious disregard of wrongdoing by
one's own government involved the German people in the 1930s -- when Hitler
embarked on his policy of extermination of the Jews. Most Americans believe
that under same or similar circumstances, the people of this nation would
act differently. Unfortunately, they are wrong. Because what Americans have
never been taught in their public schools is that the American government,
as well as other Western governments (including Britain, Canada, and most of
Latin America), through their control of immigration, sealed all avenues of
Jewish escape from the Holocaust.
The sordid facts and details are set forth in two books: While Six Million
Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy by Arthur D. Morse, first published in
1967, and The Holocaust Conspiracy: An International Policy of Genocide by
William R. Perl, published in 1989. Morse was executive producer of "CBS
Reports" and the winner of numerous broadcasting awards. Perl served as a
Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army Intelligence Service, worked in the Prosecution
Branch of the War Crimes trials, and later taught at George Washington
University.
An American cannot read these two books without total revulsion at the
reaction of his own government to Hitler's policies against the Jews. Both
authors detail the methods by which American politicians and bureaucrats,
while maintaining an appearance of great humanitarianism, used immigration
policies to prevent Germany's Jews from escaping to the United States. Morse
writes:
"In 1938 the Nazis burned every synagogue in the nation, shattered the
windows of every Jewish establishment, hauled twenty-five thousand innocent
people to concentration camps, and forced the Jews to pay 1,000,000,000
marks for the damage.
"Five days later, at a White House press conference, a reporter asked the
President 'Would you recommend a relaxation of our immigration restrictions
so that the Jewish refugees could be received in this country?'
"'This is not in contemplation,' replied the President. 'We have the quota
system.'
"The United States not only insisted upon its immigration law throughout the
Nazi era, but administered it with severity and callousness. In spite of
unprecedented circumstances, the law was constricted so that even its narrow
quotas were not met. The lamp remained lifted beside the golden door, but
the flame had been extinguished and the door was padlocked."
And Perl writes:
"Anti-Semitism ... was certainly a part of the anti-immigration mood of the
country, but it was not the sole cause. This was 1938, the U.S. was still on
the fringes of the 1929 depression and fear that newcomers would take away
jobs needed from those already in the country was genuine. The fact that
newcomers mean also increased consumption, that many of them, as they
actually did, created new jobs rather than occupy existing ones was not
considered....
"President Roosevelt was first of all a politician, and a shrewd and
ruthless one at that. He was not going to imperil his fragile coalition for
moral or humanitarian reasons. He was not ready to put it to a test over an
issue that he knew, was loaded with emotion among supporters as well as
opponents and which was in summary not popular at all. He was at that time
preparing to run for an unprecedented third term of the presidency, and any
rocking of the boat was out of the question.... Yet, it was necessary to
keep up the image of a great liberal and humanitarian."
One of the most dramatic and tragic examples of the U.S. government's
immigration policy against the Jews was evidenced by what has become known
as "the voyage of the damned." Just before war broke out in Europe, a German
cruise ship loaded with almost 1,000 Jewish refugees left Germany and headed
to Cuba -- where friends and relatives of the passengers waited for their
loved ones. When the ship arrived, the Cuban government refused to permit
the Jews to disembark. When the ship began moving close to American waters,
the United States Coast Guard closely followed to make certain that no Jew
jumped ship and infiltrated America.
Since no other nations were willing to accept the refugees, the ship headed
back to Germany where certain death awaited its passengers. At the last
minute, England and some of the European nations reluctantly agreed to
accept the refugees. Unfortunately, many of those who went to Europe were
later killed under the Nazi occupation.
It is easy for present-day Americans to say, "We would never let that happen
again." Yet, we continue to permit our public officials to control
immigration. And the results of this control point only in the direction of
future catastrophe.
The U.S. government rightly criticizes the Soviet Union for not letting Jews
emigrate... but then is horrified at the prospect of having to let Soviet
Jews enter the United States. And it rightly criticizes Vietnam for its
oppressive society ... but then is horrified at the prospect of having to
let too many Vietnamese "boat people" enter the United States.
And on the southern border of the United States, good and honorable people
of the Republic of Mexico have been incarcerated, year after year, in
American concentration centers for committing the heinous "crime" of trying
to sustain and improve their lives through labor. I personally have been
inside these concentration centers and visited with these victims of
20th-century political tyranny, and I shall never forget the looks on their
faces -- looks which asked "Why are you doing this to us?"
Free immigration is nothing to fear. As free-market economists have shown
for years (i.e., Julian L. Simon's 1989 book, The Economic Consequences of
Immigration), immigration is actually an economic boon to a society. Of
course, fears of huge burdens associated with welfare, public schooling, and
other aspects of the welfare state are a legitimate concern. But we should
not use the welfare state as an excuse for rejecting free immigration;
instead, we should use freedom as a reason for ending both the welfare state
and immigration controls -- and for ending the real and potential evils
associated with them.
As walls separating people are crumbling all over the world, it is time for
us to tear down our walls. It is time for us to recapture the spirit of
liberty which guided our American ancestors and to lead the world to the
highest reaches of freedom ever known by man. It is time for us to let the
world know that its beacon of liberty is once again lighted for its poor,
its tired, its huddled masses yearning to breathe free!
Mr. Hornberger is president of The Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org.) and co-editor of The Case for Free Trade and Open Immigration.
by Jacob G. Hornberger
Copyright © 2001 The Multiracial Activist. All rights reserved.
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