Why Immigration Has Become A Political Problem

Immigration has become a hot button issue in the United States during the past twenty years. The left likes to claim that this is because the rest of us are racists. That is, of course, a self-serving lie. The reality is that immigration has become a problem because of the actions of the left.

Americans Do Love Immigrants

Before we talk about the problems caused by the left, let’s be clear: Americans love immigrants. This is reflected in our politics, in every poll I’ve ever seen, and in even in our culture. And the reasons for this are simple. America is a nation of immigrants and always has been. Many of us are immigrants, are married to immigrants, and have parents or grandparents who are immigrants.

Moreover, immigrants made this country everything it is today and continue to contribute to all facets of our country, our history and our culture. Study after study shows that immigrants work harder and are more patriotic than natives. They perform better economically, they are more entrepreneurial, and they vote in higher numbers. Said simply, they make the perfect Americans.

So What’s Gone Wrong?

There are three things that have gone wrong with immigration today, and the blame lies firmly at the doorstep of the left.

First, starting in the 1970s, the left decided to open the flood gates and dramatically increased the number of immigrants that would be let into the United States each year. Last year, this resulted in over one million legal immigrants being added to the United States.

Secondly, this was compounded by the economic collapse of Mexico, which began the flood of illegal aliens into the United States. This resulted in an additional 17 million immigrants over the past twenty years. Moreover, the left has fought hard to keep anyone from addressing this problem.

Together, between legal and illegal immigration, this means that we are taking in a city the size of Denver every year. That’s troubling, but that’s not even the real problem.

The real problem is that at the same time the left began letting so many people into the country, they began instituting policies with the express purpose of keeping immigrants from assimilating into American society.

Why Is This A Problem?

The reason immigration worked so well in the past was that each wave of immigrants worked to become part of the American fabric. They learned English, they sent their kids to school, and they struggled to achieve the American dream. But this is no longer true because the left has been busy putting policies in place that discourage assimilation.

The left has worked hard to destroy language as our common bond, requiring governments to deal with immigrants in their birth languages and demanding that the children of immigrants be taught “in their native language.” This denies these immigrants the most important tool they will need to fit in with the rest of us.

The left also struggles to wipe out our culture. We are told that we must scrub the foundations of our culture from our educational system to avoid offending immigrants. Thus, schools are dropping things like Western civilization, civics, English literature, and the philosophy that gave us the Enlightenment, capitalism, and ultimately the principles ensconced in our founding and our Constitution -- the glue that holds our society together. In their place, the leftist media, leftist politic establishment, and leftist education behemoth tell us that we should teach multiculturalism, that all values are inherently equal (except our own of course), and that we should look to become like the rest of the world. . . that would be the rest of the world where corruption is a daily fact of life and thuggish dictators compete, often times violently, to use the power of the state to crush their opponents and reward their friends.

And the predictable result of all of this is that vast numbers of immigrants are being dumped into ethnic ghettos, little colonies set up inside the United States, from which they will not escape. The left even glorifies this idea, saying we should stop talking about a melting pot and instead talk about an "American stew."

Why Has The Left Done This?

The left has done this for one reason: because their views are inconsistent with Western culture and, specifically, with the American mindset. Americans have seen the dangers of collectivism writ large in Europe during the 20th Century and they want no part of it. And even more fundamentally, what the left wants goes against the very foundations of American thinking, which hold that the rights of the individual are superior to the rights of the state. Said simply, the left cannot prevail in America because Americans don’t accept its principles.

But by encouraging massive amounts of immigration and discouraging assimilation, the left is hoping to bring enough non-Americans into America that America itself must change, and thereby abandon the culture that has excluded their statist dreams. Basically, they view unassimilated immigrants as a tool for remaking America into a land more favorable to leftist thought. And if you want proof, look not only at their words -- they will admit this quite openly -- but look also at everything they propose about immigration. Every one of their proposals has the obvious effect of separating immigrants into these enclaves and keeping them from becoming Americans.

Moreover, the left works hard to poison this debate. Try pointing out any of this and see how long it takes for some leftist to come along and call you a racist -- even though the right would make the same complaints if these were ethnic enclaves of Germans or Irish. Not only does this prevent the public from fighting back effectively, but it also provides exactly what the left needs to shape these enclaves. The left wants these enclaves to feel put upon, angry, isolated, and in need of protection. . . protection which only the state can offer. The last thing they want is for these people to escape into mainstream America and become Americans.

That’s why immigration has become such a political hot button and why people are so angry. Add in some of the practical problems that accompany waves of illegal immigration (disrespect for law, drug trafficking, exploitation of people, the murder of law enforcement personnel and ranchers, the abuse of public services, depression of wages, etc.) and you have a recipe for a very angry electorate. Further add in a government that lies openly about this issue, that attacks its own citizens for raising these concerns and that seems more concerned with the “rights” of lawbreakers and terrorists than of citizens and you have a disaster brewing.

So realize that this has nothing to do with race, it has to do with the conscious attempt by the left to use these people to change our culture. Realize also that this has little to do with the immigrants themselves. Americans would happily welcome all of these people if they assimilated. They just don’t want to be colonized.