Thread by @David_J_Bier

I suspect I differ with most/many advocates on:
-Naturalization timing & rules
-Noncitizen welfare/entitlement eligibility
-Guest workers
-Discriminatory labor rules
-Min wage
-Prioritizing those already here over those banned abroad
-I believe in a presumptive right to migrate

More or less the order of how strongly I feel about them.
-I don't have strong feelings about naturalization, but I strongly think noncitizens should get far more civil rights/due process/economic liberty immediately, while I lean toward it taking longer to become full citizens

-Welfare. No one is entitled to any taxpayer $. Limiting welfare would increase the economic benefits from immigration, which would increase political support for it. Very little evidence of net harm from restricting welfare. $ can directly & indirectly cause govts to restrict

-Welfare, cont: I was once told by an official who would know, for instance, that the Obama admin didn't raise the refugee cap earlier b/c of budget constraints.

-Guest workers: Guest workers are a huge improvement over closed borders by increasing the freedom of immigrants & Americans. You can be considered pro-immigrant on the left and favor the unilateral elimination of ~95% of all visas for economic migrants

-Protectionist labor recruitment and wage rules discriminate against workers based on their country of birth and are economically harmful. Many on the left strongly favor more discrimination like this, yet are often still seen as "pro-immigrant."

-Minimum wages limit the availability of exactly the type of jobs that lower-skilled immigrants fill, making it effectively an immigration rule that unless your productivity exceeds X, you can't join our labor market.

-I would prioritize more legal immigration from abroad b/c the human welfare gains are much larger than the the gains from changing statuses in the US. Obviously, the politics don't generate this type of welfare-maximizing prioritization.

-People have a presumptive right to live and work wherever they want on whatever terms are agreeable to them and their employer, landlord, etc. This right should be as difficult to override as other nonviolent expressions of human liberty.

-"Real" criminals. The last point is the flipside of the presumptive right. Many on the left seem to think that, although you didn't necessarily have a right to come, once you're here, you should get to stay even if you commit very serious violent crimes. I disagree w/ this

All this said, I don't think that these things should hold up progress on the politically possible which would improve many people's lives. And I don't think we should simply hold up everything for my personal ideal