September 7, 2025

By Stephen Stofka

Sunday morning and another breakfast with the boys. This week Abel and Cain discuss immigration and the limits of Presidential authority. The conversations are voiced by Abel, a Wilsonian with a faith that government can ameliorate social and economic injustices to improve society’s welfare, and Cain, who believes that individual autonomy, the free market and the price system promote the greatest good.

Abel said, “I was reading that the National Parks are so understaffed after all the DOGE cuts, there is no one at the entry stations to collect admission fees. People were stealing artifacts from one exhibit in Yellowstone (Source).”

Cain frowned. “The world will never be rid of free riders. A lot of people on the right view illegal immigrants as free riders. They skip the immigration line, bring their kids here to get free health care, free education and then they say that they don’t want handouts.”

Abel put down his fork. “My whole point was that the Trump administration is losing more money in admission fees than they are saving with these personnel cuts.”

Cain nodded. “I get that. I am drawing an analogy between unrestricted admission to National Parks and unrestricted immigration at the southern border. The Biden administration understaffed border patrol and told officers to help immigrants disobey the law. So which problem is worse? A few thousand people who don’t pay at National Parks this summer or several million people coming into the country, needing medical care, education and legal services? I think we need to keep things in perspective.”

Abel argued, “I think a key distinction of free riding is that a person is not doing anything illegal. They are benefiting from some common resource without contributing to the cost (Source). People who drive into a national park without paying a fee are not breaking the law if the gates are open and there is simply no one there to collect the money. Immigrants seeking asylum are not doing anything illegal.”

Cain replied, “Most of these people are not asylum seekers. They are lying to stay in the country until their case is heard years later. The cartels in Central American countries teach these people what to say. Smuggling people is more profitable than smuggling drugs (Source). The Biden administration was facilitating cartel profits. Trump shut that down.”

Abel smirked. “Despite all the conservative rhetoric about the ‘immigration surge,’ migration in 2023 was less than it was during any year in the Bush administration except one (Source). For most of that time, Republicans held the Presidency, the Senate and the House. So its OK to let immigrants in when Republicans are in power but not so for Democrats. The right wing media has fooled the public and Democrats were too clueless to combat it.”

Cain shrugged. “Bush increased funding for more fencing along the southern border. He called on Congress to pass immigration reform and they just can’t get the job done (Source).”

Abel said, “A big stumbling block is that employers don’t want to be held responsible for any immigration violations. Sometimes, employers hire employees through a staffing agency for seasonal or temporary work (Source). The benefit of this arrangement is that there is some legal distance between the employer and the employees. They technically work for the staffing agency who deals with the immigration stuff like the I-9 form (Source).”

Cain nodded. “The immigration raid at the Hyundai plant in Georgia this week was an example. Most of those who were arrested, it was like almost 500 people, were not employees of Hyundai. They were contractors or subcontractors (Source).”

Abel replied, “Yeah, we talked about this a week or so ago. Employers classify workers as subcontractors to avoid paying employment taxes.”

Cain shook his head. “I think a bigger problem is there are too many immigrant advocacy groups that don’t believe in national borders. Major immigration reform was like in 1986, I think. If immigration policy can’t be resolved over several decades, then there are influential constituencies who don’t want to resolve it.”

Abel laughed. “They are making money from seeking a resolution, not reaching a resolution. And politicians know how to cover their tracks. They can look like they are working on a solution while taking steps to sabotage the effort.”

Cain nodded. “Well, all I know is that these immigrants are costing a lot of money. New York City estimated a cost of $12 billion over three years (Source). Where does that money come from? Reduced services and higher taxes. The Congressional Budget Office released a report this summer estimating the three-year cost of the immigrant surge. A net cost of $9.2 billion in fed, state and local services after accounting for higher sales tax receipts from these immigrants (Source).”

Abel thought a second. “Look, I’ll grant you there are some short term costs but don’t forget the long term gains.”

Cain interrupted, “Any long term gains are offset by higher house prices. Immigrants increase demand for housing. House prices go up. Econ101.”

Abel shrugged. “It’s hard to argue that immigrants are responsible for higher home prices. Another false flag that conservatives raise is that immigrants were taking jobs from Americans. That didn’t happen. By the end of 2021, less than a year into Biden’s presidency, construction employment recovered to its pre-pandemic level. By the time he left office, construction jobs were up more than 600,000 (Source). So that surge had little measurable effect on construction jobs.”

Cain argued, “Conservative economists like Oren Cass argue that illegal immigrants drive down the wages of lower skilled construction employees (Source). The number of employees won’t tell you that.”

Abel checked his phone. “Well, it does show that demand for labor remained strong. Hold on, I looked at wages too. Here it is. The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks the hourly wages of production and non-supervisory employees. That will give us a good approximate picture of any impact on wages. There was a short time in 2022 when real wages for those employees declined (Source). That was during the inflation surge. It quickly recovered. If there is any effect, it was small. The data just doesn’t support conservatives’ claims about the effect of immigration.”

Cain protested, “Look, the bottom line is that most of these people are lying and jumping the immigration line. The cartels are using people as a distraction from the transport of drugs and guns across the border and taxpayers are indirectly funding the cartels.”

Abel asked, “Do you agree with Trump that he can go after these cartels as though they were terrorists or paramilitary groups? This week, we just blew up a ship in the Caribbean that was supposedly run by the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.”

Cain shrugged. “Hey, I’m not a lawyer but I agree that these cartels act like paramilitary groups. We should treat them as such.”

Abel asked, “No trials? No evidence? No oversight? What if Trump adopts the same policy as Duterte, the former president of the Philippines (Source). Trump could start sending hit squads into American cities to kill drug dealers. Is that OK? Where is the line?”

Cain shook his head. “No, that’s on American soil. That’s entirely different.”

Abel asked, “So a Border Patrol officer could just shoot someone on the Mexico side of the border if he suspected that person of being a cartel member? Like I said, where is the line?”

Cain nodded. “Ok, now you’re sounding like a lawyer. The boat they blew up was in international waters. That’s entirely different.”

Abel sighed. “I don’t know why conservatives hesitate to define boundaries for this President. He pardoned the January 6^th rioters that tried to kill members of Congress, including the Vice President. What does this Republican Congress say? Silence. Edmund Burke, the 19^th century founder of conservatism, would be ashamed of this Republican Congress. Society is bound together by morals, conventions and institutions as much as laws (Source). This Republican Congress has abandoned those standards for political expediency.”

Cain nodded. “Fear for their personal and political safety, I’d guess. What’s happening is that the MAGA crowd is trying to overturn policies set largely by Democrats when they controlled the House during the twelve years of FDR’s presidency and for forty straight years from 1955 to 1995 (Source). Immigration is a big one. What are the limits of Presidential Authority and can he declare emergencies without consulting Congress? Another contentious issue. Who was the first President to grab extraordinary power after declaring an emergency? FDR, a Democrat (Source). It’s ironic that Trump is using the same mechanisms to undo Democratic policies that began with FDR.”

Abel frowned. “The court ruled against FDR in the Humphrey’s Executor decision. They ruled unanimously President cannot fire members of an independent agency at will (Source). The court has recently loosened that restriction (Source) and Trump wants to fire Powell, the Fed chairman. The question I have is whether a President can undo 80 years of Congressional policy? Who writes the rules, Congress or the President? This court seems like they are ready to confer kingship on the President under this judicial theory of the Unitary Executive. I mean, even if Congress does pass immigration reform, what does it matter if a President can ignore the law?”

Cain argued, “Well, nobody said the President can ignore the law.”

Abel replied, “The court has deferred to the President’s interpretation of the law (Source) and Trump has shown a willful disregard for Congress and the law in general. I mean we all saw him on the debate stage in the 2016 campaign. He has an open disdain for politicians and both parties as institutions. I mean, this guy is not a conservative.”

Cain sighed. “I’ll grant you he has undermined conservative principles and taken over the Republican Party.”

Abel smirked. “And these supposed Christians who support him. Compassion is a hallmark of the New Testament in the Bible. There are too many Christians who lack compassion for anyone outside their group. Immigrants, blacks, liberals, mainstream Republicans even.”

Cain raised his eyebrows. “Their sympathies remind me of Christians during the Crusader era. Lots of fire and retribution. Protect Christendom from the infidels. That type of thing.”

Abel laughed. “Everyone who doesn’t agree with them is an infidel, I guess. There has to be a way to bring all these political groups together in this country or this nation is going down in fifty to a hundred years.”

Cain asked, “Going down or splitting up? We’ve got oceans on both sides, a tremendous amount of resources and weak neighbors to the north and south. I doubt if we are going down.”

Abel smiled as he stood up. “Ok, splitting up. We’re already split along partisan lines. People in one party don’t trust those in the other party. I think that trend will continue. Trump is just precipitating the break up of the country.”

Cain leaned forward. “A few weeks ago, we talked about each party electing candidates from regional partitions with the party. For decades, voters are sorting themselves out by region. Democrats on the Northeast and West coast. Republicans in the Midwest and South (Source). It may be the only way to keep this country together.”

Abel nodded as he moved his chair back and stood. “You may be right. Madison wrote in Federalist 10, I think it was, that the best way to curb the power of factions was to pit them against each other (Source). A ‘fight fire with fire’ approach. That’s why I think the Unitary Executive theory is not in the spirit of the Constitution.”

Cain asked, “Maybe we could talk about that next week. You heading out?”

Abel nodded. “I promised Claire I’d help her move some furniture around this afternoon.”

Cain laughed. “You don’t sound too excited. I’ll see you next week.”

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Photo by Seongil Park on Unsplash

Note: Real wages. Average hourly wages are FRED series CES2000000008. The Fed’s favorite inflation gauge is PCEPI series. Subtract the annual percent change of one from the other to get the percent change in real wages.