One would think that being a libertarian for as long as I have, there might be more similarities between my position and other libertarians. That's the beauty of the cause: freedom doesn't require any conformity. Take illegal aliens, for example. I join with most libertarians when I say that people wishing to enter this country should do so legally. We are, after all, a nation of laws. However, I find myself parting company with many libertarians on the issue of what is to be done with those that have already entered illegally.
I recently listened to a podcast where an argument was presented that we needed to allow these people to remain in this country so that many low paying jobs could be filled. This argument is not dissimilar to those presented by Bush the Duller, predecessor to our current Big Brother. While I agree that we need to implement some improved immigration solutions, including a more accessible work program, I don't condone excusing illegal aliens from their past transgressions for any reason.
What confuses me about these arguments is that they come from people supposedly versed in the machinations of a free market. If there are indeed jobs to be filled, the market will fill them. If they are to be filled using labor rates too low for Americans to accept, the market will drive the value of these jobs higher, thereby creating an incentive for Americans to fill the positions. To use this supposed need of cheap labor to justify circumvention of existing law is indefensible and stinks of social engineering (yes, Barack, that smell was aimed at you).
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"If there are indeed jobs to be filled, the market will fill them." If the market were capable, then the low paying jobs would have been originally filled, and the illegal immigrant would not have sought employment in a non-existent market.
The illegal alien sought employment where it was available, as you point out. Had the federal government fulfilled its limited purpose, it would have addressed that, allowing the market to drive the value of these jobs upward. Since the federal government was busy amassing power elsewhere, it allowed people to flow over the border, creating a situation that does not need to exist.
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