Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Where to Send Illegal Immigrants

Send them to 'sanctuary' jurisdictions.

Eric Adams, mayor of NYC, would be happy to show his hospitality and humanity. I am using 'jurisdiction' to cover cities, counties, and states.  Here is a nifty map and a list brought to you from the fine folks over at the Center for Immigration Studies. I am proud to report that no city or county in Arizona is on the list. 

Note the clustering of 'sanctuary'  counties. The nastiest such cluster appears to be in the Pacific Northwest in Washington and Oregon with an increase in the density of clustering as you 'migrate' toward the Left Coast.  

From the map, I judge that the majority of the 'sanctuary' jurisdictions are coastal with most of the 'fly-over' jurisdictions in THC-rich Colorado.

A state is composed of counties, and counties are composed of cities (towns, etc.).  Would I be wrong to infer that if a state is a 'sanctuary' state (Illinois, e.g.), that every county  in that state has the same status, and every city in every county? OR can counties and cities in a 'sanctuary' state retain non-'sanctuary' status? I don't know, which is why I am asking.

(By the way, it annoys me when I ask someone a question of the form 'Do you know why ___?' and he responds, 'Why?')

Now for a trio of polemically-intended witticisms:

There  is more of sanctimony than of sanctuary in a 'sanctuary' jurisdiction.

It is easy to be sanctimonious if you have no skin in the game.

Only the inmates of an asylum could confuse an illegal immigrant with an asylum-seeker.

Mockery is a weapon not to be sneered at in our battle with our political enemies. And throw in a little contumely for good measure.

 

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Bill Vallicella

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5 responses to “Where to Send Illegal Immigrants”

  1. EG Avatar
    EG

    Bill,
    I hold a deep and abiding respect for you, your ideas and take seriously always the things you say, even if I don’t always understand or agree with them.
    That said, I sometimes get this strong sense of a zero-sum game afoot, and which is partisan in a way that doesn’t properly capture the plurality that actually exists. To be sure, we must be practical but the constant drive to an “us versus them” mentality is both obnoxious, and, I think, in the end counter-productive to the ends that “either side” wants.
    But perhaps this attitude marks my unfitness for the “rough-knuckledness” needed for real politics.

    Reply
  2. BV Avatar
    BV

    EG,
    Thanks for the comment. For you, the ‘trigger sentence’ in the above post is probably: ” Mockery is a weapon not to be sneered at in our battle with our political enemies.” WEAPON, BATTLE, ENEMIES.
    In another recent post, I said that we ought to consider the leftists who have taken over the Democrat Party to be, not political opponents, but political enemies. That no doubt sounds the ‘us versus them’ theme.
    Now we will surely agree that peace is better than war, that love is better than hate, that social harmony is better than contention. But here’s the thing: peace, social harmony, productive interaction, etc. cannot exist without broad agreement on fundamental values, attitudes, presuppositions and the like. And that broad agreement no longer exists.
    So politics has become a zero-sum game. Whether it must be one, always and everywhere, is a further question. Carl Schmitt might be right to see the essence of the political in the friend-enemy opposition. I leave that undecided. But in the present situation, right-thinking Americans who love their country must stop surrendering ground to destructive leftists. And so it is a war. I am not saying that politics has to be a war; I am saying that in the present circumstances it is a war.
    For example, anyone who supports DEI is my political enemy. Every such person I want removed from power.
    I am open to further discussion. Do you accept DEI and what do you take it to involve? We could start there.
    Is the ‘us versus them’ mentality >>counter-productive to the ends that “either side” wants<

    Reply
  3. Elliott Avatar
    Elliott

    Bill,
    No city or county in Florida is listed, either. But California, my quondam quarter, the diggings I departed almost 20 years ago, is a major sanctuary. Here’s more evidence: as of January 1, 2024, California granted tax-payer-funded healthcare to all illegal immigrants in its jurisdiction at the estimated cost of $6.5 billion per year (not including what Californians were already paying to provide healthcare for immigrants 19-25 and 50+).
    State Senator María Elena Durazo claims this decision underscores: “California’s commitment to health care as a human right.” I wonder if she is confusing negative and positive rights. I suspect most Americans are likely to grant that the pursuit of health care is a negative right. Quite arguably, however, health care is not a positive right.
    $6.5 BILLION per year! That’s a steep price for confusing negative and positive rights!
    https://abcnews.go.com/Health/california-1st-state-offer-health-insurance-undocumented-immigrants/story?id=105986377
    According to the California Department of Health Care Services, California’s Medi-Cal program is funded by state and federal taxes. Here’s a fair question: are these taxes just?
    https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/services/medi-cal/pages/whatismedi-cal.aspx#:~:text=Medi%2DCal%20is%20California's%20Medicaid,by%20federal%20and%20state%20taxes.
    P.S. It is interesting for both theoretical and practical reasons that, below the surface of this story, there are at least two important matters of moral and political philosophy: negative vs. positive rights, and just vs. unjust taxation.

    Reply
  4. BV Avatar
    BV

    Elliot,
    The fact you cite in your opening paragraph shows the fiscal and moral insanity of the leftist fools who run California.
    Socialism could work with very strict border control: elimination of illegal immigration, and carefully vetted legal immigration. But socialism with wide-open borders is a recipe for disaster. Alternatively you could have wide-open borders with no gov’t handouts.
    The distinction between positive and negative rights is important.
    I would say that there is no positive right to health care for citizens let alone for illegal aliens. I give some arguments here: https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher_stri/2019/02/is-there-a-right-to-health-care.html
    I’d say health care is a commodity:
    Why isn’t health care a commodity in the way that automotive care is? If I want my car to run well, I must service it periodically. I can either do this myself or hire someone to do it for me. But surely I have no right to the free services of an auto mechanic. Of course, once I contract with a mechanic to do a specified job for a specified sum of money, then I have a right to his services and to his services being performed correctly. But that right is contingent upon our contract. Call it a contractually acquired right. But I have no right to free automotive services just in virtue of the fact that I own a car. So why is it any different with my body? Do I have a right to a colonoscopy just in virtue of my possession of a gastrointestinal tract?

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  5. Elliott Avatar
    Elliott

    Bill,
    I agree that there is no positive right to health care. I also believe that the gov’t has no right to force its own (legally employed) people to defray healthcare for illegal immigrants.
    I was surprised to find that California’s Medi-Cal program is partially supported by federal taxes. According to the California Health Care Foundation, “In FY 2021–22, Medi-Cal was financed 70% by the federal government, 21% from the state general fund, and 9% using other state and local funds.”
    https://www.chcf.org/publication/medi-cal-explained-medi-cal-financing-spending/
    So, California has the right to use federal tax revenue, largely paid by Americans from other states, to fund its own welfare programs? Unlikely.

    Reply

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