Common Sense Needed for Immigration Reform

Our current immigration system creates a neurotic cycle where we import the “disadvantaged,” then blame ourselves for the negative consequences. I call this cycle America’s never-ending shame.

America is now importing large numbers of economically poor, poorly educated, low-skilled immigrants, whose presence generates racial inequalities. Racial inequalities, as we all know too well, require that we collectively flog ourselves in a frenzy of national guilt.

The consistently unwise policy of importing the “disadvantaged” is even worse today because assimilation has been rejected in favor of its opposite, multiculturalism. This state of affairs essentially guarantees that many immigrants will hold on to historical grievances and various ethnic loyalties, exacerbating resentments over America’s race-based “disadvantages.”

Into this cauldron, we allow a constant influx of the “disadvantaged.” The outcome is a racialized political system, the expansion of a Leviathan welfare state, and a less united society.

The growing ranks of the “disadvantaged,” as should be expected by anyone who acknowledges voting patterns, have no interest small government conservatism. Perceptive observers see that “a gut-level aversion to the government is almost exclusively a white phenomenon.”

Take, for example, Hispanic views about the role of government: 75 percent of Hispanics want “a bigger government providing more services” while only 19 percent prefer “a smaller government providing fewer services.” Recently arrived immigrants are often the most likely to support left-wing policy, because they tend to be the least educated and the poorest.

Driven by an influx of the “disadvantaged,” the foreign-born share of America’s population is approaching modern record levels.

As John F. Kennedy wrote in his book “A Nation of Immigrants,” discussing the turn of the century: "Those who were opposed to all immigration and all ‘foreigners’ were now joined by those who believed sincerely, and with some basis in fact, that America’s capacity to absorb immigration was limited."

In the early 20th century, intense scrutiny was directed towards the social issues stemming from immigration. According to the book "Americans No more," The result was a “40-year moratorium” on immigration that allowed for the assimilation of the massive numbers of European immigrants admitted in the early 20th century.

As usual, we’ve forgotten our history, and few of today’s Republicans would have the nerve to say what Theodore Roosevelt once said: "If any man dilutes his loyalty to America by any degree of loyalty to any other country whatsoever, he ought instantly to be sent out of this country and back to the country where he belongs."

Contrast Roosevelt’s words with Pew polling data showing that 51 percent of Americans of Hispanic origins actually identify themselves as Mexican, Puerto Rican, etc. Another 24 percent describe themselves as “Hispanic/Latino,” while only 21 percent describe themselves as “American.”

Instead of getting serious about our sovereignty, the way Roosevelt was, pro-amnesty Republicans like Renee Ellmers, Kevin McCarthy, and the defunct Eric Cantor wish to import disadvantaged advocates of expanded central government, and reward those who are here illegally.

According to MigrationPolicy.org, in terms of educational attainment, 62 percent of Mexican immigrants above age 25 have less than a high school diploma. As for the most recent wave of illegal immigrants, Central American immigrants above age 25 have comparably low education levels.

When looking at households headed by an illegal immigrant, 50 percent are headed by someone without a high school degree. If we had an expanding agricultural and industrial economy, it would make sense to allow a limited number of such immigrants. Given our current economic reality, and the devastating hardships many Americans face, it seems almost masochistic to allow the illegal entrance of great numbers of people who will exacerbate employment problems.



The “disadvantaged” immigrant population is growing, assimilation is a thing of the past, and radical multiculturalism is the state dogma. Admitting large numbers of poorly educated, low-income immigrants predictably increases racial inequalities, and fosters resentment towards “white privilege.”

All the while, state-run schools foster racialized historical grievances. American society doesn’t have the capacity to reverse these trends because the melting pot is frozen: there appears to be no counter to the left’s appeal to racial loyalty and non-American nationalism. Immigrants once gave life to the American dream, and many still do — but institutions, ideas, and people can change.

As executive amnesty looms, the neurotic cycle continues: mass immigration, inequality, mandatory guilt, welfare state expansion, and the "disuniting of America." The long-needed remedy is to stop admitting “disadvantaged” immigrants, build a fence like other nations who possess a sense of self-preservation, and enforce laws against employing illegal aliens.


John Bennett is a writer whose work has appeared in The Daily Caller,Townhall.com, American Thinker, Human Events, Liberty Unyielding, FrontPage Magazine, World Net Daily, New English Review, and Accuracy in Media. For more on John Bennett, Go Here Now.