Much has been made this week of the new immigration law passed in the State of Arizona.

The problem in Arizona is:

The State has responded to the lack of Federal direction on this issue by passing a law that

…would take handcuffs off police in dealing with illegal immigration in Arizona, the nation’s busiest gateway for human and drug smuggling from Mexico and home to an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants. The law requires police to question people about their immigration status – including asking for identification – if they suspect someone is in the country illegally. It’s sparked fears among legal immigrants and U.S. citizens that they’ll be hassled by police just because they look Hispanic.

As a Libertarian who is strong on the rule of law, established by the various State and Federal Constitutions, this case is a real pickle for me.

While I am all for open immigration and the freedom of an employer to hire whomever will give him the best quality and quantity of labor for the cheapest price, the drug cartels in Mexico are threatening innocent lives, and I think (though I’m loathe to admit it) that an American military solution is the only one left to the problem they present because of the strength of these gangs.

I seriously believe that the ideas espoused in the phrase “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” apply to every human on the planet, equally, regardless of geographic location. Thus, I believe that the immigrants trying to come to America, where they can have as much liberty to climb as high as they can, should be assisted by every real capitalist, freedom-loving American.

Otherwise, we need to chisel that poem about “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” off the Statue of Liberty.

However, I also recognize that the sole purpose of government is to protect its citizens from the kinds of violence we’re seeing on the border, and will continue to see in increasing levels as time moves forward. That, combined with the desire of the citizens of the State of Arizona to have this law (which is popular there), and the Constitutional truth that the States formed the Federal government, not the other way around, and are free to act as they see fit to secure the lives and property of their citizens, lead me to support the freedom of the citizens of Arizona to govern themselves as they see fit.

However, I would like to comment that the real reason this situation even exists is because of the actions of the US Federal Government.

The warlords, crime bosses, and gangs in Mexico would not exist without the US Government’s War on Drugs. It has produced the exact same atmosphere as the original attempts at Prohibition back at the start of the last century, and the leaders of these organizations are men cut from the same cloth as Al Capone.

When President Obama speaks about “irresponsible” and “misguided” legislation, maybe he should think about his own hypocritical stance on the ill-conceived drug war? When you listen to this clip of him attacking Arizona’s new law, replace it with “The War on Drugs” and it makes just as much sense.

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