Immigration Debate Update
On June 29, I publicly challenged my opponents in the race for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination to debate the following resolution:
“Resolved, that the United States abolish the Border Patrol and the Immigration Service and all restrictions on trade and instead adopt a position of totally open borders, thereby enabling the free, unrestricted movements of goods, services, and people into the United States.”
I published this debate challenge on Substack, where it can be read here. It was sent via Twitter to the following declared candidates for the LP presidential nomination:
Jacob Hornberger
Mike ter Maat
Chase Oliver
Lars Mapstead
Since then, I realized that Joshua Rodriguez is another declared candidate for the LP presidential nomination and that I failed to send him notice of the debate challenge, for which I apologize.
None of the LP presidential candidates has accepted my debate challenge, which is unfortunate because it would have enabled us to focus in this debate on only this important burning issue facing our country.
A positive sign in the direction of principle
But while I am disappointed, I continue to remain heartened and encouraged by the recent conversion of L.P. presidential candidate Chase Oliver to the open-borders position. See my article “A Major Shift in the Direction of Principle in the Libertarian Party!”
When I announced my candidacy for the presidential nomination last February, as far as I know, I was the only candidate favoring the libertarian position of open borders. Today, owing to Chase’s recent conversion to this position, there are now two L.P. presidential candidates favoring open borders. That’s two out of 5, or 40 percent.
My goal? I think it would be great to have 2/3 to 3/4 of all L.P. presidential candidates (including the ones who will be joining the race later on) adopting the open-borders position by the nominating convention next May. (How about it, Mike, Lars, and Joshua? Will you join Chase and me in support of open borders?)
Granted, immigration is only one major issue facing our country, but given the controversial nature of this position within the Libertarian Party, I believe that 2/3 to 3/4 of the L.P. presidential candidates embracing the libertarian open-borders position would be a major step in the direction of restoring the libertarian brand of principled libertarianism within the party and of restoring the Libertarian Party to its role as the Party of Principle in the political arena. (See my series of articles on Substack advocating these two critically important aims, beginning with my August 9 article “Restore the Libertarian Brand.”)
Full disclosure
(In the interests of full disclosure, I should point out that Chase’s presidential campaign website continues to reflect his old position on immigration and has not yet been updated. It states in part: “I think most people can agree that our nation’s immigration system is a mess. We need a President who will break the partisan logjam and bring people from all parties together to reform and modernize it….” So, I’m not sure what’s going on here, but unless Chase is having second-thoughts about his pro-open borders conversion, I assume that he will be updating his campaign website soon to reflect his new position on immigration.)
Future immigration debate updates
I continue to believe that a single-issue debate on immigration among the L.P. presidential candidates would be extremely beneficial, both to L.P. members and to the American people. If the other candidates for the L.P. presidential nomination change their minds and become interested in participating in this important single-issue debate, I will publish a new Immigration Debate Update to advise everyone of the debate details.