The Case for Open Borders

by John Washington

But, you might ask, what about immigrants who commit violent crimes—shouldn’t they be given the boot? It’s a common counterargument, and one that needs to be addressed. You might answer that an unauthorized immigrant convicted of such a crime should be treated as would any other person convicted of a crime; but in the United States, especially, any considerate or thinking person would hesitate to subject them, or anybody, to the dysfunctional, discriminatory, and wildly abusive criminal justice system. Mass criminalization and incarceration, especially of Black and Brown people, is a horribly failed national experiment, has not made society safer, and does a lot to make families, communities, and especially the people thrown into the system, miserable. Indeed, in the United States, prison does more to provoke crime and violence than it does to prevent it.