Pros And Cons Of Closed Border Libertarianism

The Paris terrorist attacks have caused a rift in the libertarian community. To the surprise of many, some libertarians advocate for a closed border policy. I was in shock too when I first heard of this position considering that libertarianism is about natural rights, and what more basic right is there than movement? This debate is extremely complicated, and it is unfortunate many fail to see this the complications.

Ask any run-of-the-mill libertarian on the street about the debate and they will claim there are two sides: the open border libertarians, i.e. the true and consistent libertarians, and the closed border libertarians, i.e. reactionaries who either use utilitarianism or are changing up libertarian principles to make them fit what

He claims taxpayers have property rights in the “public property”, e.g. roads; the taxpayers are funding the roads and thus have better objective, intersubectively ascertainable links to the lands than outsiders. Of course, the original, proper owner of the land has a better objective claim to it, and we are talking about 2nd or 3rd best claims to land. Moreover, Hoppe claims that the state would be a better trustee if they excluded the use of the public roads by non-taxpayers, i.e. immigrants, since less people’s rights would be violated than if there were an open border

There are aggressions committed via state coercion by keeping invitees off the land they were invited, and there are more aggressions through the funding of the policy enforcement, i.e. taxation.

Following in the tradition of Rothbard and specifically Hans Hoppe, a correct libertarian and justifiable answer to the immigration problem can be found. It is crucial to recognize the taxpayers as those who have the 2nd or 3rd best claims to the “public property,” and to say otherwise would be ridiculous since there are objective links between the public property and the taxpayers, i.e. their funding the maintenance of the public property.

Contrary to Hoppe, however, the correct policy recommendation is an open border policy. While there might be more aggression committed if borders are left open, a closed border policy requires institutional infringement of rights. Possibly at this moment the aggressions committed under an open border policy might lead to more aggressions overall, but the likelihood of aggression tomorrow, the day after, the year, or decade after is lower than under a closed border policy . A state policy, e.g. taxation, is more likely to keep recurring than an individual