As the Trump administration has moved at a breakneck pace during its first few months in office, its near-total shutdown of the southern border and an end to the wave after wave of illegal immigrants has rightly been a major focus.
But illegal immigration is not the only kind of immigration into the United States. Today, the U.S. admits more foreigners through its legal channels than ever before, and the percentage of the population that is foreign-born is higher now than ever. The principles of the nation’s founding have seemingly lost their place in the conversation of who is allowed to enter through our legal ports of entry and why.
This Washington Examiner series will explore the numerous policy and philosophical questions that are raised by the issue of legal immigration, featuring commentary from think tank scholars and academics who seek to answer those questions and provide a road map for a legal immigration regime that serves the interests of America and its citizens.
For immigrants, unity, not diversity, is what makes them American
President Abraham Lincoln understood the close connection between the “rights of human nature” disclosed in the Declaration of Independence and the importance of assimilation. On July 4, 1858, Lincoln appeared before a group of immigrants and referred to the founding generation as a race of “iron men” who fought to secure rights and freedom for the nation.
Most of you here today, Lincoln said, cannot trace your ancestry to those “iron men,” — you have no connection to them by blood. But when you look through that “old declaration,” Lincoln advised, you see that their central moral principle was stated very simply: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” And it is through this principle, Lincoln told his immigrant audience, that you have the right to claim your relation to those “iron men” quite as certainly as though you are the “blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that declaration.”
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Assimilation, Lincoln held, is best achieved by a common dedication to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. This unity will be the nation’s strength. Today, of course, we are confidently assured by political leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, that “diversity is our greatest strength.”
This is an oft-repeated meme. We know, and common sense insists we know, that diversity is the solvent of society. Where there is no common good, where people are encouraged to make demands on society based on a host of idiosyncratic claims, the common good and unity of society dissolve into tribalism or worse. Today, the progressive Left says that the “melting pot” is “racist” and “imperialist.” Lincoln was wiser: It was the idea that “all men are created equal,” regardless of ancestry or country of origin, that was a unifying principle.
Read more from the Washington Examiner.
America has more foreign-born residents than ever
The Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey from January of this year showed 53.3 million foreign-born or immigrant residents (legal and illegal alike) in the U.S., equal to 15.8% of the total population. Both are record highs in American history.
There are four important things to keep in mind about legal immigration. First, its scale. One in 8 adults in the U.S. is a legal immigrant. Second, most legal immigrants are not admitted based on their skills or the needs of the U.S. economy. Third, the whole system runs largely on autopilot with little consideration of the fiscal, economic, political, or cultural impact on our country. Finally, legal and illegal immigration are closely linked.
Is mass legal immigration overwhelming the assimilation process? Should we continue to have a system that puts so little emphasis on skills? How do we have legal immigration without spurring illegal immigration? Given the level of legal immigration, it has a much larger impact on our country than illegal immigration, so formulating sensible policy in this area is at least as important as addressing illegal immigration.
Read more from the Washington Examiner.
Legal immigration for a moral citizenry
The illegal immigrant crisis created by the Biden regime is so appalling, and so gigantic, that it has rightly captured the attention of both the public and the Trump administration. While the scale of the crisis defies description, it can largely be resolved through a faithful execution of existing immigration law. In dealing with the problem of illegal immigration, however, it is important that we also think about America’s legal immigration policy.
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In thinking about immigration, we have the benefit of being about to draw upon the ideas of America’s Founding Fathers. Not so much on specific policies, as early America’s immigration policies were largely driven in large measure by the particular circumstances of the time, but in terms of general principles. The principles of the American founding form a series of guideposts for thinking about legal immigration policy.
Legal immigration policy, like any other policy, should be oriented around the primary purpose of any just government: the protection of the unalienable natural rights of American citizens. The Declaration of Independence asserts that the purpose of government is “to secure these rights,” a reference to the unalienable natural rights stated earlier in the document. The obligation to secure rights, however, extends only to those who are lawful members of the political community: citizens. Generally speaking, the government is not obligated to secure the rights of noncitizens.
