In Defense of Illegal Immigration

I have previously argued that the state should repeal (all or most) immigration restrictions (https://fakenous.substack.com/p/is-there-a-right-to-immigrate).

Here, I explain why, regardless of that, illegal immigration is morally fine.*

[ *Based on: “In Defense of Illegal Immigration,” in Open Borders: In Defense of Free Movement, ed. Reece Jones (University of Georgia Press, 2019), pp. 34-50. I previously blogged about this at https://fakenous.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-illegal-immigration. ]

1. Ethical Questions About Illegal Migration

• Many people -- at least politicians during campaigns -- appear to express some indignation and condemnation at people who have "violated our laws!!" by immigrating illegally. Are such attitudes appropriate?

• Sometimes it is suggested that these illegal migrants should be punished for their presumed misdeed. Would that be just?

• If you have the chance to migrate and thereby improve your overall welfare, but doing so would be illegal, do you have a reason to refrain out of respect for the laws of your desired destination country?

I suggest that the answer to all of these is "no". Potential illegal migrants have no moral reason to respect immigration laws.

2. Things I Am Not Assuming

I am skeptical about political authority. I think that no state is legitimate, no one has political obligations, and no one has political authority. That stance would make it easy to answer the above questions. Since there is no obligation to obey the law in general (merely because it's the law), there is also no obligation to obey immigration laws.

Unfortunately, not everyone has read my book on The Problem of Political Authority. Worse, even some who have read it don't agree with it. So let's suppose we bracket that. I mention the issue of authority only to make clear that I am not assuming any controversial stance on that.

I also am not assuming anything controversial about the justification of immigration laws.

In other words, my claim is that even if the state has authority, and even if the immigration laws are entirely justified, there is still no moral reason at all for potential immigrants to respect the immigration laws.

How can that be? Briefly, (1) even if the state has authority, that authority only extends to its own citizens; and (2) even if there are good reasons for the state to adopt immigration restrictions, those reasons are not reasons that the migrants themselves have. (You might have a reason to try to prevent me from doing something, even while I have no reason not to do it.)

3. Accounts of Authority

Basically, all extant accounts of authority imply that the state's authority would not extend to potential illegal immigrants. I don't agree with any of these theories, but let's pretend that we think one of them is correct.