… is from page 254 of Joseph Carens’s Spring 1987 Review of Politics paper, “Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders” (original emphasis):
This shows why the claim “It’s our country. We can admit or exclude whomever we want” is ultimately incompatible with a property rights theory like [Robert] Nozick’s. Property cannot serve as a protection for individuals against the collective if property is collectively owned. If the notion of collective ownership is used to justify keeping aliens out, it opens the possibility of using the same notion to justify redistributing income or whatever else the majority decides.
DBx: Agree with them or not, some rationales for restricting immigration are stronger than others, with a few of these rationales being downright internally inconsistent. The “libertarian” who, with one breath, professes a belief in the importance of individual private property rights, and, with the next breath, argues for restricting immigration by asserting that “It’s our country and we can choose who and how many to admit” is hopelessly confused and self-ensnared in a logical contradiction.
