immigration

a few days ago i had a conversation with a friend about immigration.
i think there should be no immigration....

because...
i think there should be no border control.
lets take this idea of a global village a little further.

political borders are a good idea
-to define a sovereignty,
-to define a jurisdiction for the law,
-to define a place of identity,
-to define an area of service.
but that's it....

people should be allowed to come and go as they please.
people should be able to apply for citizenship.
and if they are granted citizenship then they get to participate in democratic control,

but regardless of them being citizens or not, if they choose to work within these borders then they have to pay taxes. employers can give them a pay check and if they don't have a social security number then instead of the usual payrol taxes that are cut for us citizens they would have their own tax which is cut from their paycheck. lets call this tax, a guest worker tax or something. maybe like 2.5 percent or so. half of which will go for us to maintain and protect this political entity and into a defence department fund to maintain military bases on US soil for self defence. and the other half would go into a trust fund that provides services to sick and poor guest workers who choose to live here but are unable to support themselves. like a network of government run shelters with clinics and soup kitchens and social workers.

if they choose to buy property in a city, they would still have to pay property taxes like everyone, to support the local government services. and utility bills like everyone, to pay for the infrastructure. and sales taxes like everyone, to support all sorts of things.

but until they apply for citizenship they don't get to vote for changes to the system.
but if they choose to enter our economic and our social environment they should be free to do so, we will be nothing but better for it.

what about those who want to harm us? what about security? I ask you, can we ever really be secure from those who want to harm us? if they want to do it badly enough they will ALWAYS find a way. This does not mean that we don't have a well funded and able military to defend us from an invading army, or that we don't fund an able military that can take another territory and make it a part of our nation if our elected representatives vote on it. But it does mean that we must control our behavior and be responsible for the actions we take around the world that make more enemies who will want to do us harm.

i wish we would deal with this situation realistically. we need immigrants. and security is an illusion. the only real way to be secure is to not feul hatred against us by wielding our power arrogantly.