The plain distinction between the GOP (first paragraph) and libertarians (second paragraph):
….Yet conservatives grow apoplectic at proposals to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows. Why? Some of the objection is deontological: Rules are rules, after all, and we should not reward people for breaking them. You can see the sense in that: If an immigrant can ignore U.S. entry laws, then why not let him also ignore U.S. food-safety laws or environmental-protection laws? Do we enforce the laws that are on the books, or not?
(To that, there is an equally deontological reply: If someone wants to get a job, buy a house, purchase food and clothes and other consumer goods, and so on—and other people are happy to hire him and sell him things—what right does any third party have to interfere in those free and consensual exchanges?)….
Via The GOP’s Immigration Problem @ Reason.com.