There’s a trade-off you have to make with tariffs.

By raising tariffs, you protect the industry from foreign competition. Sure, workers might have relatively more secure jobs than they would otherwise, but the product of their work is also more expensive and would cost consumers more. Without the tariffs, the industry would be required to produce lower cost goods to compete with foreign counterparts, workers have more precarious jobs, but consumers spend less over all.

The thing is workers are consumers in other areas of their life. The Libertarian justification for eliminating tariffs is that, without tariffs, people have more economic liberty through lower costs to make optimal choices in their lives. Their rejection of tariffs derives from the inefficiencies tariffs introduce into the market that raise costs and hamper economic liberty. So, if, as you say, we raise tariffs to protect American workers, we’re cutting off our hand to save our fingers.

Naturally, Cato Institute is also in favor of increasing immigration.