“Libertarians Against Open Borders?”

Richard Epstein describes why immigration policy is fraught with complicated trade-offs that make hard-line positions — whether on the restrictionist side or the open-borders side — inappropriate. Along the way, he ventures into the debates over which criteria America should use to admit new immigrants, the effect of low-wage immigrants on American labor, whether it’s inconsistent to support free trade without supporting open borders, and why America has been so successful at assimilating immigrants from different races and cultures.