Put up or shut up

Perusing Patrick Deneen's back catalogue, I came upon an entry in which he discusses one of my pet peeves: conservatives who (like me) get bent out of shape over illegal immigration, but who hypocritically don't acknowledge the connection between the cheap consumer goods and services they expect, and the outlaw immigration they abhor. Patrick makes a challenging proposal. Emphasis mine:

Opponents of illegal immigration demand that we secure our borders in order to ensure our "sovereignty," but will doing this meaningfully ensure our sovereignty in an age of outsourcing and "the service economy," of massive foreign ownership of US government debt and our reliance on "foreign oil" (a.k.a., oil)? Why do we not hear from illegal immigration opponents any arguments on behalf of paying higher prices for citizen-produced goods? Organic markets have sprung up to ensure that certain kinds of goods have been produced humanely (e.g., free range chickens or grass-fed cattle), and tend to be a mainstay in Blue State cities (e.g., Whole Foods, etc.). Couldn't some illegal immigration critic begin a supermarket that would sell "citizen-produced" products or housing tracts built only by citizen-contractors? How about a fast food chain with only citizen-produced ground beef and chicken nuggets? Would our consumers flood them, in spite of the higher prices? Would it force producers who use illegal immigrant labor to start doing employment I.D. checks? Think of what happened last time there was a "Buy American" effort. The dominance of Wal-Mart throughout Red State America (not to mention Blue State America) does not inspire confidence.

Sure, by all means let's secure our borders. Nevertheless, the argument that securing our southern border will ensure our "sovereignty" just rings a bit false in an era in which America demands "everyday low prices," and as a result is everyday more beholden to Saudi Arabian oil, Chinese plastic products and Far Eastern purchasers of our debt. Practicing the primary end of sovereignty - self-governance - would go a long way to securing our borders.