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Open Borders Do Not Lead to Prosperity

Illegal immigration has plagued the United States for decades. The business, political, media, and academic elite in America today insist that the unfettered movement of all people will, among other things, lead to a greater level of innovation. According to this theory, whenever America becomes less inviting to foreigners, that talent chooses to go elsewhere. As Ángel Cabrera, president of George Mason University argued recently, that loss of foreign talent was “others’ gain.”

The implication is that President Trump’s strict stance on illegal immigration is somehow harmful to America because it diminishes the likelihood that foreign innovators will look for a better life in the United States.

This is nothing but an old straw man argument deployed by the Left and corporatist Right. Fact is, Trump has never favored ending all immigration into the United States. He has quite vociferously defended legal immigration into the country, especially when that immigration is in the national interest.

Cabrera also asserts, “Immigrants or their children started more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies, according to the Kauffman Foundation, and more than 50 percent of billion-plus startups had at least one foreign-born founder.”

But what Cabrera fails to acknowledge is that absolutely none of these individuals came to the United States illegally. So, presumably, the president’s “draconian” stance on illegal immigration would not have deterred these legal immigrants.

When Trump speaks of building a wall, or temporarily halting immigration from a handful of Middle Eastern and African countries over national security concerns, he is not isolating America. He is defending it from those who seek to harm our people. It has nothing to do with racism or fear mongering.

Unlike Cabrera and his fellow globalists, Trump understands that illegal immigration is quite different from legal immigration. Indeed, it is a grave threat that the president must neutralize.

Just this week, there was an horrific incident reported in Rockville, Maryland about an innocent 14 year-old girl who was brutally raped by two immigrants, aged 17 and 18, at her school. The older of the two immigrants crossed into the U.S. illegally seven months ago. Turns out, the two young men were classified as “Dreamers.” This, as Rockville debates whether or not it will become a sanctuary city and politicians strive to make Maryland a “sanctuary state” for illegal immigrants.

Globalists offer dubious moral arguments in support of illegal immigration. They make the empty promise that these immigrants will, by and large, contribute more to society than “lazy” working-class folks who supported Trump. Because our own poor are so repugnant to these globalists, they would like to import a new lower class beholden to them. So they claim illegal immigrants are really the future and whoever recognizes this fact first will win politically and economically.

Or so the narrative goes. Reality is quite different.

Look at the two young men who raped that poor girl in Maryland. They came from Guatemala and El Salvador, countries that have been destabilized by the Mexican drug war. Does anyone really believe either of these two young men would become the next Steve Jobs?

Of course not.

America should start focusing its own human resources. We have to invest in developing our own human capital. The United States needs serious education reform that can maximize the potential of all of our people. This is something that America has lacked for decades.

For the last 20 years, countries like China and India were making serious investments into their educational systems. They wanted to create the next wave of global innovators, business leaders, and scientists. Meanwhile, in America, we concoct lame Common Core standards and worry about whether or not little Johnny can tinkle in the girls’ restroom.

We spent the last 20 years telling our kids they were the best simply because they existed. In China, meanwhile, children are rigorously conditioned at a young age to compete academically; they are encouraged by their families and the state to seek employment in fields such as science, technology, engineering, and math (all while their “civic” instruction teaches that the West is their enemy). Chinese leadership recognized that the source of their own strength is in its people at the very moment that the United States appears to have forgotten this basic truth.

Economists describe “human capital” as the “skills, creativity, and enterprise” of a country’s populace. Nobel laureate economist James Heckman insists that countries such as the United States must “invest in families and nurture the cognitive and social skills in children from birth to age 5 […] The payoff—7% to 10% on the dollar—in greater academic success, future productivity and economic prosperity is the best investment around.” And, as Susan Ochsbhorn wrote, “By some estimates, human capital creates two-thirds of a modern economy’s wealth.”

There’s a reason that, in 2012, KPMG’s global Tech Innovation Survey found 43 percent of respondents said Silicon Valley’s “crown would be passed elsewhere” and that a plurality of respondents (45 percent) believed that China was the “country most likely to be the next innovation center.”

Many analysts believe that quantum computing will be the future of computers. Do you know which country just had some of the greatest breakthroughs with this technology? China. Last September, China launched its quantum Internet satellite. This technology, if it works as planned, likely will revolutionize the way that we communicate globally. It could potentially replace the Internet as we know it today.

What’s more, it will confer an unimaginable strategic advantage upon China’s armed forces. Toward that end, the Chinese created a quantum radar that they claim can penetrate American stealth technology, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Not so long ago,  such revolutionary and complex technology would have been pioneered in the United States. But this is what happens when America no longer invests in its future.

In terms of gross domestic product (GDP), China is the second-largest economy in the world today and the largest in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). They are producing future innovators and industry leaders at amazing rates.

This is an odd turn of events, if Cabrera’s arguments on the necessity of open borders hold true.

After all, China is a relatively closed society with strict immigration policies (to say nothing of its mercantilist trade policies). Yet, here China is beating out “free trade” states like the United Kingdom and Canada, and chipping away at America’s lead. Indeed, China is slated to overtake the U.S. economy (in terms of GDP) as early as 2018.

Something isn’t quite right here. How is China so successful if it has such restrictive immigration policies?

People like Ángel Cabrera are completely wrong. Illegal immigration helps no one—least of all the victims of illegal immigrants. If America wants to compete (and win), it must invest in the people who are already here. Open borders are not the path to prosperity.

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About Brandon J. Weichert

A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (May 16), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.href="https://twitter.com/WeTheBrandon">@WeTheBrandon.