When I first joined the South Carolina Libertarian Party (SCLP) in 2012, I was introduced to the non-aggression principle:
Don’t hurt people. Don’t take their stuff.
This is the core tenet of libertarian philosophy. It’s the easiest way to evaluate potential government action – does the action hurt people? does it take their stuff? If the answer to either question is “yes,” then the government ought not to be doing it.
Last week was a trial for the non-aggression principle. We started the week with ICE raids and the deployment of the National Guard at the behest of the President. We ended the week with Israel bombing Iran and one of our South Carolina Senators posting “game on.”
Use of military force for any purpose is not a game.
How should we coexist in our country? How should we coexist in the world? What, really, is the role of Congress, specifically the Senate, in determining the answers to those questions?
The Senate has the power of oversight. We should be monitoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) including, but not limited to, the security of the border, the process for obtaining legal citizenship, and the consequences for failing to do so. Through the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, the Senate should be evaluating processes that address critical functions like admitting non-citizens to the country at all ports of entry.
The most recent subcommittee hearing on border security was focused on the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Subcommittee Chair Senator Lankford from Oklahoma, pointed out that one of the mandates for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at its creation was entry/exit verification, meaning when someone enters the country we know they’re here and when they leave, we know they’ve gone. If they’re on an expired visa, we know they haven’t left. Except that capability, 20 years after the mandate, is still not a reality.
The answer, according to the witness from DHS, is more resources: funding for staffing, funding for technology upgrades, and funding for technology deployments.
This week’s ICE raids and the demonstrations in opposition thereof are a product of the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to locate and expel individuals who have entered the country illegally. When visas are impossible to obtain, desperate migrants enter illegally. The committee reported the current wait for a visa from Columbia is 18 months.
Systemic failures exist here. Failure to monitor the border (at all points of entry) and issue visas to welcome migrants and refuse unwelcome individuals. Failure to monitor those admitted individuals to ensure compliance with the regulations of their issued visas. Failure to enforce the limits of those visas and expel, routinely and civilly, noncompliant visa holders. Legal entry should be fast, cheap, transparent, and easy. DHS has had 20 years under a mandate to make it so. They have failed and so has the Senate in its oversight capacity.
Systemic failure seems like the kind of thing oversight should correct, does it not?
The ICE raids and the deployment of the National Guard to restore order amid protests and provide support to ICE agents are government aggression. Whether they’re the best course of action, whether California should have used local authorities to quell protests, whether the raids ever should have occurred, all of those considerations are irrelevant in light of the aggression, basic and true, that we’re seeing right now. Aggression begets aggression. Violence breeds violence.
I oppose violence.
As the U.S. was in negotiations with Iran to discontinue their uranium enrichment activities in a diplomatic effort to disarm, Israel attacked Iran. Bombs targeted and destroyed the very locations under discussion, rendering the conversations moot. It’s reported at least 12 civilians, and three ranking military officials were killed in that initial attack. As retaliatory acts continue, more casualties occur. State sponsored murder is aggression. Aggression begets aggression. Violence breeds violence.
I oppose violence.
This is not a game. These are people’s lives. Our government, and the people who run it, are playing fast and loose with legal authority. They’re charging forth on crusade heedless of the damage they’re inflicting, or, worse, accepting of it. And our allies are taking risks we may be expected to support. Or, in the words of one Senator from South Carolina, risks we already support.
I oppose violence.
It’s been a tough week for the non-aggression principle. In part because not everyone adheres to it. But I will. It’s a core tenet not only of the libertarians, but also for me.
Don’t hurt people. Don’t take their stuff.
We must prioritize oversight, correct systemic failures that lead to desperation, and oppose aggression in all its forms.
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