One of the more remarkable aspects of the continuing debate over
American immigration policy is that the nation's liberal elites seem,
ever so gradually, to be finally catching up with the people. For years
opinion polls have demonstrated that most Americans of all political
persuasions and all ethnic backgrounds want less immigration. Yet year
after year immigrants continue to flood across our borders at the same
time that "opinion molders," elected officials, business executives, and
professional eggheads insist that mass immigration is really beneficial and
its dangers are much exaggerated by "nativists" and "racists."
Current immigration policies are the result of laws and policies deliberately
adopted by the federal government over the last 30 years. Since 1970,
some 30 million people, "the numerical equivalent of having relocated
within our borders the entire present population of all Central American
countries," have been added to the U.S. population because of
immigration, and this influx has largely been the result of a single
legislative measure, the Immigration Act of 1965. This is really a big
number of new people who have all come to this country in recent years. It
is a huge number in some people’s eyes. During the congressional
debates on that legislation, which was seen at the time as part of the civil
rights revolution, its liberal sponsors argued repeatedly that it would not
result in huge increases in immigration and that the immigrants who
arrived because of it would not modify the traditional ethnic composition of
the American population from its historic European base to a Third World
base. This was explicitly stated by Edward and Robert Kennedy, its chief
sponsors in the Senate, as well as by Representative Emmanuel Celler in
the House, President Lyndon Johnson, and various Cabinet officials.
Within a decade, however, they were proved to have been wrong, as
conservative critics of the act predicted, and the results are with us to this
day.
The 30 million immigrants who have settled here in the last quarter
century are overwhelmingly from non-European, Third World societies, and
as a whole they carry with them many of the ideas, habits, and manners
that make their native countries Third World in character: the lack of a work
ethic, an penchant toward authoritarian and often aggressive political
behavior, and an unfamiliarity and uneasiness with the religious,
educational, hygienic, scientific, and moral conventions of the West that
most Americans take for granted. This has got to end before America
becomes converted more and more into a Third World country, which is
already happening. In cases in which an employer has a significant
number of employees with inaccurate personal identity information, the
Social Security Administration will send the employer a "No-Match" letter.
The regulation clarifies that employers may be held liable if they ignore the
"No Match" problems by failing to take specified steps within 90 days of
receiving the letter.
America has longed battled the issue about immigration. Today people in
general have a very mixed feeling about the issue of immigration.
Immigrants escaping from prosecution built the United States. Today,
America firmly tries to solve many of our economical, political and social
difficulties due to the burden of the thousand immigrants that enters the
United States. Many people argue that immigrants steal jobs from the loyal
Americans. Overcrowds schools, ruin health care system and abuse health
and public and federal services. Michael Huffington, a former member of
the U.S House of Representatives from California, explains: Spending on
illegal immigrants is out of control.? On the other hand, many argue that
immigrants are actually good for America’s present and future status.
Statistics show that immigrants lower unemployment rates, pay more taxes
and expand our economy by consumption of goods and other services.
Immigrants also increase jobs and improve schools. As more Americans
become aware of the issue, the more questions are aroused and the fewer
answers we come across.
In conclusion, it is precisely the refusal of the political, industrial, and
cultural elites in the United States to take any actions to control or bring
immigration to a halt that is so fear-provoking. The proof for the real
significance of immigration -- the lowering of wages, the dislocation of
workers, the boost in crime, the heightening of ethnic and racial conflict,
the disintegration of the bonds of nation and culture, and the sheer weight
of numbers on natural resources and an eroding infrastructure -- is now
overwhelming, and still the political leadership of both parties regurgitates
the clichés about "a nation of immigrants" and our "international
responsibility."