Immigration of Every Stripe

Until last night, I was agnostic regarding illegal immigration.  Every time I listened to the arguments from both sides, I always felt like someone was pulling a sleight of hand on me.  Either the Mexicans were all hard-working saints ready to take up jobs that us elitist Americans refused to take, or they were a drag on our social security, etc.  EWTN had some awful speakers in the past year who gave such porous arguments that I could drive a car through them.  But simultaneously, the anti-”illegals” crowd seemed to want to protect only their interests and turned a blind eye to a desperate people.  If no bad arguments were being made on either side, then we were arguing over calling illegal immigrants “illegals,” which reeks of political correctness.

However, I think I finally found an argument which compels my assent, given that the facts presented are true, an argument which finally makes me realize that illegal immigration really is a problem, an argument that makes me realize that preventing illegal immigrants from coming into the United States is not just about protecting people’s pocketbooks.  Surprisingly (and shockingly), the argument came from Michael Savage, a radio talk show host whom I despise.  For instance, the last time I listened to him, he kept asking his guest why anyone was entitled to a dime of his money, and kept interrupting the man mid answer.  I usually don’t listen to talk radio, but apparently my sister left the car radio tuned to a talk station and left the radio on when I got into the car.  Savage was on, and so I listened. 

The argument starts with this tuberculosis case that has made so much news.  For those who don’t know, this lawyer was traveling overseas and picked up a dangerous strain of TB.  He was instructed not to come back to America (or to travel in general).  He was told to stay where he was and get treated by Italy’s medical staff so he wouldn’t spread the disease to other people.  This man didn’t listen, and continued to travel.  He flew into Montreal, and then crossed the border back into America, infecting many people in the process.

Savage said it, and I agree:  such an act is criminal.  This man blatantly disregarded his government’s orders and selfishly continued to travel, endangering many lives in the process.  The act is reckless and blameworthy.  Savage then brought up a bit of American history.  In the 1920’s, America checked all immigrants for disease as they passed into the country.  If they had so much as a tooth cavity, they were either quarantined until they got better, or sent back to their country of origin.  This was part of a large scale program designed to eliminate/prevent dangerous diseases from coming into the country.  No one complained about individual rights at the time because everyone still had some notion of the ‘common good,’ unlike Americans today. 

Savage blames the fall of the quarantining system on the AIDS lobbyists.  Whether or not that is true, I don’t know.  But what is true is that at the moment we have no people screening immigrants as they come into the country for any disease whatsoever.  Consequently, several diseases are spreading very rapidly.  In the 50’s, TB had been nearly eradicated in this country.  Now, TB is making a comeback.  The resurgence of TB happened at the same time that AIDS became epidemic.  TB followed AIDS in an opportunistic manner, taking advantage of AIDS patients’ weakened immune systems.  Consequently, places like San Francisco have higher rates of TB than other places in the world in which TB is considered an epidemic. 

Other countries have high rates of many diseases, including but not limited to TB.  Mexico, for instance, has a very high TB rate.  For years, scientists and health officials have been worried that small pox will evolve into a new strain which will make our current vaccinations worthless.  Not to mention several other awful diseases, who need to be quarantined so as to keep everyone else from getting sick.  This is one of those instances where the common good so trumps individual “rights,” and instance which is so self-evidently true that libertarians should just surrender their ideology now.  No one would let a very sick person into their own household to infect everyone else in the house.  Kids who are very ill are told to stay home from school for the sake of everyone else in the school.  Such cases are no different than making sure that very sick people are not allowed to pass their illnesses to people in another country. 

But even if we did screen every immigrant that came into this country legally, we have several thousand immigrants coming here illegally every year, people who are carriers of deadly diseases.  I don’t care if we have TB vaccinations.  As I said earlier, we can’t rely on these vaccinations as the sole defense against diseases which have historically wiped out countless people.  We need to make sure that these diseases are eliminated altogether before they come back in force to bite in a different form.  But even if we screened every legal immigrant, we are letting thousands of illegal immigrants into this country who are very probably carriers of TB and several other potentially dangerous diseases (I’d have to research to see if this is the case; I only know of TB for sure because it has been in the news so much recently).  And if a person migrates to America illegally while knowing that he is a carrier of TB, he’s at the very least guilty of gross negligence and selfishness, and at worst a crime, putting lives at risk.  He has no right to disobey our laws, putting our citizens in potential risk all because he wants a better life. 

Now, I still think that the ultimate solution to the immigration problems is to improve the standards of living in Mexico enough that its citizens aren’t desperate to come to America to make a decent living.  But the moral obligations flow both ways.  They are obligated to respect our laws, especially if they are a potential threat to the health and perhaps lives of others.  Neither side can justify their actions just because the other side was negligent in upholding their obligations.  One of America’s obligations is to keep its people safe from deadly disease.  Illegal immigration, no matter how desperate, prevents the US from fulfilling this obligation on a massive scale.  Hence, illegal immigration must be stopped.  I am no longer indifferent on this point, even if I still think every person deserves a better standard of living than what is offered in Mexico.  Let’s fix both injustices rather than using one to justify the other.