With immigration being a hot-button issue, you would think the left would have a cohesive message on open borders. And you would be wrong.

Yesterday, President Trump mentioned that he would be willing to shut down the government this fall if border security, immigration, and the border wall aren’t addressed.

Which then produced this wacky op-ed from USA Today, written by Jeffrey Miron of the Cato Institute. Brace yourselves.

Opinion: The solution to America’s immigration problems is open borders, under which the United States imposes no immigration restrictions at all. https://t.co/lFRJnvvkGs (via @usatodayopinion)

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 31, 2018

This is not a drill.

Trump, however, has it exactly backwards: The solution to America’s immigration problems is open borders, under which the United States imposes no immigration restrictions at all. If the U.S. adopts this policy, the benefits will far outweigh the costs.

Legalize ALL immigration
Illegal immigration will disappear, by definition. Much commentary on immigration — Trump and fellow travelers aside — suggests that legal immigration is good and that illegal immigration is bad. So, legalize all immigration.

Government will then have no need to define or interpret rules about asylum, economic hardship, family reunification, family separation, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and so on. When all immigration is legal, these issues are irrelevant.

The question of fairness about who enters first — those who waited in line or those who entered illegally — disappears. Amnesty for existing illegal immigrants also becomes a non-issue. Or an open borders policy could require anyone who entered illegally to exit the country — for exactly five minutes — and then re-enter legally.

Think about the money we could save and make
Expenditure on immigration enforcement would shrink to nothing, because open borders means no walls, fences, screening at airports, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), deportations, detention centers or immigration courts. A 2013 report estimated that immigration enforcement cost more than $18 billion annually, and standard indicators suggest costs have grown further since then.

Seriously, is this guy even proofreading his own work?

They will send their best
The government’s fiscal balance could actually improve with more legal immigrants earning income and paying taxes in America. And under open borders, any added immigration will plausibly come from those with even higher skills and incomes, who faced weaker incentives to immigrate when faced with the burden of current restrictions.

Expenditure on the welfare state will contract because even if immigrants vote for welfare spending, existing residents will vote for less generous benefits when they believe these accrue to recent immigrants.

What about possible bad outcomes of open borders?
Immigrants will not flood into America, although the rate of immigration might increase. Instead, much of the immigration will be temporary. Return migration happens because most people want to be near their families, surrounded by their own language, culture or religion.

If immigrants know they can re-immigrate, they are less likely to put down roots. Instead, many will come for a few years, to work or study, and then depart. This happens routinely in the European Union, which has mainly abolished immigration restrictions among member states, and it was common historically during periods of relatively open borders. Plus, increased immigration will lower wage differentials across countries, reducing the incentive to immigrate.

Crime will not skyrocket. Available evidenceshows that immigrants are no more crime-prone than natives. And the additional immigrants likely to enter under open borders would plausibly be even less so, because they have shown respect for the law by not immigrating illegally.

Terrorists could well enter via open borders, but they do so now illicitly. Little evidence suggests that our immigration restrictions prevent terrorist attacks.

And that’s enough of this drivel. Let’s just say that these arguments were neither compelling nor persuasive.

Let’s just do it and be legends https://t.co/aRQ4x6rdCF pic.twitter.com/LTswIZlHy8

— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) July 31, 2018

That may be the dumbest article I have ever read and that’s saying a lot. Why not just legalize everything and then we won’t have any crime?

— John Gann (@wolfpack1620) July 31, 2018

Read this twice trying to be open minded. My conclusion is, this has to be satire.

— Ron B. (@rcbvt) July 31, 2018

How quickly you forget 9/11

— Dave Lafferty (@djl25777) July 31, 2018

Open the border and within days there would millions upon million streaming into the country with nowhere to live, nowhere to work, nothing to eat, and nothing to do. What could go wrong?

— EnoughWithTheOutrage (@nathanmills) July 31, 2018

But just wait… this is all an EEEEEEEVIL Koch Brothers plan!!! At least, that’s what Bernie Sanders said. Get the popcorn and enjoy.

Flashback to the time Bernie Sanders called open borders "a Koch Brothers proposal" https://t.co/eeE7XMjkCa https://t.co/3C3H9UTg6F

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) July 31, 2018

This is gold. ( via @lachlan )https://t.co/4WE6Z0RCg1 pic.twitter.com/WdhhznquE1

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) July 31, 2018

You can actually see the exact moment when Klein realizes he's talking to a crazy old man.

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) July 31, 2018

Now, the interview is from 2015 and is making the rounds on Twitter today, but has anyone asked Bernie if he’s changed his mind on open borders since the “Abolish ICE” movement started? Like his shiny new protégé, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? We all know she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but does she know that she’s just a pawn of the Koch Brothers???

I think it’s safe to say, for now, that having official policy include “open borders” is a non-starter among sane people. But with Trump now tossing in the idea of a government shutdown over immigration, I think we’re likely to see that rhetoric, under the cover of “Abolish ICE,” get more coverage. Beware of the day when sane people actually take it seriously.