Does it Make Sense for Libertarians to Stand for Open Borders?
Only if the 'migrants' share their philosophical predilections.
Libertarians support open borders. But it might not be in their long-term best self-interest to do so, assuming that they are more than a discussion society and want to see their values implemented politically. Libertarians stand for limited government, individual liberty, private property, and free markets. On these points I basically agree with them, although I am not a libertarian. But they don't seem adept at thinking in cultural as opposed to economic terms.
They need to ask themselves whether the culture of libertarianism, its ensemble of values and attitudes, is likely to flourish north of the Rio Grande if an endless stream of Hispanic and other non-white immigrants is allowed into the country. It is likely that these newcomers will swell the ranks of the Democrats and insure the triumph of socialism when that is manifestly what libertarians oppose. The Democrat Party will ignore the illegality of their entry and ensure that these ‘undocumented Democrats’ acquire all the documentation they need to have the political rights of full-fledged citizens.
Libertarians may be in a bind similar to the bind Sierra Club types are in. The latter, being 'liberals,' opposed Trump's ‘Wall of Hate’ which they deemed immoral and divisive and racist. The porosity of the southern border, however, contributes to serious environmental degradation -- which is presumably what Sierra Club types oppose. But do they really oppose it? For a leftist, the (apparent) issue is rarely the (real) issue. The real issue is the triumph of socialism with environmental protection a goal that is at best secondary. Sierra Club types are leftists first and environmentalists second.
Libertarians want a severely limited government of enumerated powers. This desideratum is plainly in tension with what the majority of the illegal immigrants want, namely, a rich assortment of welfare state benefits. ‘Free’ health care, ‘free’ education, and the rest. By championing borders open to the world, libertarians work against their own interests. And all because they cannot think culturally, but only economically.
Libertarians are like (classical) Marxists in their overemphasis on the economic. And like Marxists, their understanding of human nature is deeply flawed. Libertarians think of human beings as rational actors -- which is obviously not the case in the main. The vaunted rationality of the human animal is only in rare cases consistently actual; in most it remains mainly potential, and in some not even that. There can be no sound politics without a sound philosophical anthropology, i.e., a correct understanding of human nature. Here is where libertarians can learn from conservatives.