One of the most important public policy debates in our country now centers around the issue of illegal immigration. A politically induced crisis is occurring at our southern border wherein millions of people are flooding into our country. Some are selling drugs and the number of crimes committed by illegal aliens has skyrocketed under the Biden-Harris administration. In 2019, there were two killings committed by illegal immigrants. Last year there were sixty two murders or manslaughters. Additionally, fentanyl has been flooding the nation, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. In 2021 alone over 70,000 people died in primarily fentanyl related overdoses.
Such horrific statistics led candidate and then President Donald Trump to say that Mexico is sending us people who “are bringing drugs, and bringing crime, and their rapists.” His forthright rhetoric gave the media a field day, calling him a racist and bigot. However, both they and the elites in Washington should not have been surprised. They ignored an important problem and people were angry.
Despite these grim crime statistics, however, only a small minority of illegal immigrants actually commit crimes. Many left-leaning media outlets were quick to point this out, as if it diminished the problem. It certainly doesn’t and those who allow open-border policies are partially responsible for the crimes committed by illegal aliens. But despite the relatively low crime rate, there are other reasons to secure our border. Even if an influx of illegal immigrants does not commit crimes, they do weaken the social fabric of our country.
In the early 20th century when millions of immigrants were coming to America, President Theodore Roosevelt said that “The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin…would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.” He contended that America is only able to function as a diverse nation because people renounce their foreign cultures and become American. Further, he criticized the so-called “hyphenated American” who put a narrow ethnic grouping ahead of their identity as an American.
To many modern liberals, these words sound like nails on a chalk-board. They accuse those who insist that foreigners be forced to adopt new practices and beliefs as being intolerant. In some measure, they are correct. We will not tolerate a set of practices which lead to the dissolution of our nation. Tolerance, they seem to forget, is a right which depends on the existence of a unified society. Those who come here must be committed to the American project, or tolerance will not last.
Our country is unique because individuals from foreign countries have come to this nation and willingly placed themselves within a different cultural heritage. I have no relatives who were here in early America and yet I view the Founding Fathers as my forefathers. I suspect that hundreds of millions of other Americans feel the same way.
Allowing millions of illegal immigrants to flow across our southern border is not a recipe for internal harmony or social cohesion. Rather than promoting assimilation, this system encourages people to form ethnic enclaves to avoid law enforcement. Additionally, without rigid citizenship tests and language requirements, a diverse set of people will be unable to form a lasting political community.
A country has a right to regulate who will be granted citizenship. Those who violate United States law should not be granted amnesty for doing so. Rather than allowing millions of illegal immigrants to flood our southern border, we should be focusing on an immigration policy that encourages assimilation and self-sufficiency.
My thoughts exactly for the past 30 years, but said more eloquently than I could.