As for any government-financed services that immigrants might use, let’s not forget that they also pay a good deal in taxes. There’s no reason to think they are a net drain on the welfare state.

But that is really beside the point. If we don’t want people living off the taxpayers – and this should apply to American citizens as well — we should transfer welfare services to private charity and the free market. There is no good reason for government – the essence of which is physical force – to be running schools and hospitals, which are the taxfinanced facilities most likely to be used by immigrants. I really see no moral difference between a citizen and a noncitizen taking advantage of a government program. The most objectionable aspect of government largess is not who accepts it but how the politicians obtain the resources that they then distribute. Taxation is robbery.

Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org), a nonprofit Libertarian advocacy group based in Fairfax, Va., and editor of The Freeman magazine.