Guests in the Machine

Reason, April, 2008 by Matt Varvaro, Kerry Howley

I was surprised to read Kerry Howley's praise for a guest worker program and her advocacy for its implementation in the United States ("Guests in the Machine," January). I find it hard to believe that any proponent of limited government would support such a program, which would undoubtedly require active involvement, as well as the devotion of expensive resources, by the federal government. It seems inconsistent with the traditional principles of libertarianism to promote a federal project of this magnitude. By simply enforcing the law and ensuring that every person employed by an American company is a taxpaying and law-abiding citizen, the federal government can take a much more direct approach to the immigration problem in a way that requires far less bureaucracy than a guest worker program.

Matt Varvaro

Port Washington, NY

Kerry Howley replies: Matt Varvaro forgets that the prohibition on free movement across our southern border is a massively expensive government program. In 1986 the U.S. Border Patrol had an annual budget of $151 million. Today it is $3.5 billion. Even by conservative estimates, the proposed 700-mile border fence will cost many billions more. As taxpayers are hit, so too are border businesses that depend on cross-border trade.

While the fiscal strain is staggering, the costs to human freedom may be even more troubling. For those not granted the benefits of U.S. citizenship, the curbs on autonomy are obvious. But the same ban that prevents non-Americans from traversing the border prohibits Americans from hiring whom they wish, from housing their noncitizen mothers and fathers, from bringing same-sex domestic partners into the United States. As with similarly failed prohibitions on drugs and the commercial sale of sex, I take the position that even a highly regulated regime is preferable to this comprehensive ban on peaceful cooperation. I find it hard to believe that any proponent of limited government would not agree.