There is no issue today that is more widely discussed than America's role in the world. Fundamental to that issue are America's trade and immigration policies.
On the right, you have the reemergence of an ugly nativism that views all things non-American - or, more precisely, non-Anglo - as being degenerate and culturally destructive. As a result, Pat Buchanan, National Review, and others have endorsed a five year moratorium on all immigration - legal and illegal. Many on the right have also betrayed the principles of free and liberal trade - principles they claim to hold so dear - via their continued insistence on subsidizing many domestic industries, as well as their defense of harmful tariffs on foreign goods entering the United States.
On the left, while you will find few who would publicly endorse the idea of ending all immigration, a similar mentality is at work: namely, that the state, acting in the name of the "national interest," has a fundamental right to restrict man's mobility. And on the issue of trade, the left - having been in the back pocket of trade unions for the better part of this century - is vehemently opposed to the very idea of liberalized trade.
It is a frightening situation for classical liberals.
Thankfully, there is a loud and principled voice for freedom that has arisen to counter the arguments of the statists of both the left and the right: The Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF). Founded in 1989, it is FFF's goal to present "an uncompromising moral, philosophical, and economic case for individual freedom, private property, and limited government." And with this end in mind, the Foundation has recently published three books on topics of interest to all libertarians: The Dangers of Socialized Medicine, which chronicled the folly and immorality of nationalized health care systems throughout the world; Separating School and State, which presented a brilliant argument for the abolition, not the reformation, of government schools; and, most recently, The Case for Free Trade and Immigration (FFF, 143 pages), a collection of 23 essays - most of which originally appeared in FFF's monthly publication Freedom Daily.
Unlike most so-called proponents of open borders who argue for relatively minor changes in trade and immigration policies on the basis that their proposals have been proven to be "empirically" sound for the United States, the authors collected in this book make the principled case for the complete repeal of all trade and immigration restrictions.
While this may appear to be a foolhardy policy position to the various wonks and technocrats who advance their empirical arguments with little interest of the greater issue at hand, it is indeed just the opposite. For it is not only the morally correct position to take, it is also the position libertarians must take in order to win the battle - especially considering the current state of affairs.
As it now stands, the Buchananite position in favor of a complete moratorium on immigration is somehow considered to be a respectable position to take, while unfortunately, but not surprisingly - given the tactics advanced by most "pro- immigration experts" - a call for completely open borders is viewed as being outside the bounds of rational debate. The battleground is no longer level - a fact that won't change until more radical voices in favor of the liberalization of trade and immigration policies are heard; voices such as this book.
The Case for Free Trade and Immigration is a resounding answer to the critics of liberal trade and immigration policies. As the authors compiled in this book have stated, the United States isn't fundamentally distinguished by its "culture" - as many right-wing opponents of open borders argue - but rather by the principles that are embodied in the Declaration of Independence: individual freedom, limited government, and peace. By advocating further limits on man's mobility and his ability to trade peacefully, opponents of free trade and immigration are desecrating these principles and, in the process, undermining America's real culture: the culture of freedom.