You captured the philosophical reasons for the resentment of our immigration policy, but missed the real world reasons. Yes, the average American’s disgust about the gaming of the immigration system by wealthy elites has now managed to supplant their anger at the wealthy’s similar exploitation of the income tax code - no mean feat. You allude to the real reason when you highlight the importance of the American Dream. As I mentioned in this past post entitled “Immigration - The New Slavery” (www.newnationalism.com/domestic-policy/immigration-the-new-slavery) on my website, elites have used the past de facto system of unrestricted immigration to keep wages down on both ends of the educational and economic scale. They wax eloquent about immigrant’s dreams while actively frustrating those of American citizens. and thus betray the American Dream rather than fulfill it. Thus, you’re correct that the issue is not individual immigrants or their origins. It is the scale and true goals of the recent surge in immigration that fuels the opposition.
Not to mention massive deportation efforts is the only thing that will restore faith in the system for a majority of Americans. It is not just about stopping years of bad actions. It is about showing they can be reversed.
Absolutely. The point I'm trying to make is that it's not even about who is made to leave, but the way that it is done. If one of the problems was violating the rule of law and democratic accountability, then it's important to proceed under the rule of law and democratic accountability.
It’s not clear to me exactly why the Biden administration decided that it was a good idea to open our borders to millions of unskilled, uneducated people. Allowing a relative small number of the well educated in each year is probability a good idea.
This was one of the most disastrous policies the country has seen in my long lifetime. Importing millions of people who will work for next to nothing just to be here undermines the wages of our working class and exacerbates our national housing crisis when we can’t house our own citizens. It consumed billions of our tax dollars which could have been put to better use.
The age of mass migration is over. People cannot overpopulate their home country and just expect to move to greener pastures. There are no more green pastures. They need to voluntarily reduce their country's population to an environmentally sustainable level, stay there and work to improve their living conditions.
I still don’t understand those who say that we should not deport the majority of these interlopers. They violated our laws and continue to violate them. No one believes that they have a right to visit Paris as a tourist, rent an apartment and live their life there without the permission of the French people and no one would argue that the French have no right to kick them out of that country. Why do the same rules not apply to the United States? They clearly do.
As I think I wrote in another comment here, I suspect it was a mix of moralistic quasi-religious belief and cynicism. There is a big strange in progressivism looking for moral redemption, and immigration was viewed as a moral sacrifice to others to atone for past sins. The other part was a cynical but false belief that this would lead to a permanent political majority.
The problem is that anti-democratic ends and means have already been embraced by all sides. I am increasingly coming to believe that this political arms race has already reached the equivalent of a nuclear exchange, and that there’s no going back.
I think the nuclear metaphor is a good one, but perhaps more hopeful than you think. The usual pattern is that people rush toward oblivion up to the brink and which point they panic and pull back. That's exactly what happened with nuclear weapons.
It's works great, of course, until the one time that it doesn't.
You are more optimistic than I am (which is good, considering the stated aim of your substack). I am not sure I really see any willingness to pull back yet, on either side, just partisan denunciations of tactics that will be hypocritically utilized by the same people as soon as their relative positions are switched. There’s no acknowledgment of using anti democratic and/or authoritarian tactics previously, let alone any evidence of remorse or rethinking.
The closest thing I have seen comes from Steve Teles of Johns Hopkins via his National Affairs essay “Minoritarianism is Everywhere” which just came to my attention this morning, and I don’t think it’s going to have a lot of impact on the people who matter most.
I'm actually not a Pollyanna about this. It's a real concern. The problem with this sort of thing is you only need to get it wrong one time for everything to collapse forever. So I agree, it's unwise to wish upon a star that everything will magically turn out alright. You have to actually make the right decisions and do the work. But I also have some confidence that, as foolish as people can be, self-preservation eventually kicks in when the crisis comes and they ultimately smarten up.
I’d like to respond to an assumption in your article — that everyone would be happy to accept immigrants if they would just assimilate by working hard, showing up for 4th of July parades, follow the rules, assimilate, etc. The fact is, immigrants do all that. ICE is picking people up AT WORK, or when they (following the rules) show up for immigration process appointments. ICE wants to chase down kids in public schools - what’s more assimilative than school? Etc etc. Let’s be real - if a bunch of people are having a big 4th of July picnic in a public park other people mutter “what are they doing here”. The whole “criminals and illegals” messaging only works because it builds on existing prejudices.
My own ancestors were chased out of Pennsylvania for “popery”. They found a more welcoming home in the Irish ghetto of multiethnic Brooklyn, but then one of the family (a priest) lost his parish in what’s now Chinatown because he was too prejudiced against the Chinese immigrants who were taking over the neighborhood from the Irish immigrants. I imagine there are similar stories in the DiStefano family.
At the end of the day, people do want community and they want that community to look like them, but you can also enjoy community that doesn’t all look like you. That’s what’s made America who we are.
I don't actually disagree! Although I didn't say everyone would be happy to accept immigrants. I quite intentionally put up front that some people indeed simply don't like people who are different, some of them even have platforms. My point is that what this small number of people believe isn't what a majority of Americans who voted based on immigration believe, which is why the way the administration is going about immigration is a big mistake.
I don't remember if I left a comment, so apologies if I am repeating myself.
Republicans and conservatives have, in my opinion, not done a great job at articulating why immigration is a problem.
Long ago, I recommend to a big think tank that they frame the border issue as a crisis because it empowers cartels thereby putting innocent women and children in *even more danger*.
It took a while for that to catch on.
Conservatives, or at least those interested in sensible immigration policy, continue leaving the door *wide open* to accusations of racism.
Let’s get real. Biden and all the other politicians did this to water down American values. Why are mosques going up all over the country? Look at Europe. This is being done on purpose. We now have small armies of military age men all over the country. Guess they are gonna need some women?
I think it was a combination both more idealistic and cynical. The idealistic part is that there's a messianic and quasi-religious belief within progressivism holding America must sacrifice to atone for its historical sins, and this was a means of penance. The cynical part was a mistaken belief this would lead to a permanent political majority.
Why would Biden of all people be interested in the creation of Mosques. America has an aging population, and they are willing to the work for less for jobs Americans don't want to do. That is why politicians turn a blind eye to illegal inmigration.
It actually started under GWB. After 911 Bush told us that Islam was a religion of peace and we were not to buy into conspiracy theories about the Muslim peoples.
Then, he proceeded to import 250,000 a year! He did this after we were supposedly attacked by jihadist. Muslim jihadist. But, Bush only imported peaceful Muslims wanting to be free?
How many mosques did the USA have prior to 911?
“A statistical study of mosques in the United States shows that the number of Islamic houses of worship has increased 74 percent since 2000.”
I actually do think it's about numbers. We need to see immigration and the mass immigration of the last 30 years in Western nations as separate phenomena.
My understanding of the recent political upheavals in the US and other countries is that globalisation (which included mass immigration) brought massive changes to our societies which really hurt a large number of people, who lost their jobs and/or lost their communities. These changes were actually beneficial to business owners and college graduates, so the establishment parties refused to do anything. Trump created a deep sense of loyalty in many people by standing against mass immigration and globalisation. Similar elections of populist leaders or right-wing parties are unfolding in the UK, France, Germany and other nations for the same reason.
Ultimately, mass immigration is justified by the theory that there are no important genetic differences between human populations that might cause disparities between groups in a multicultural society, and so importing tens of millions of people will have no bad long term effects. I suspect the theory is false, which is why mass immigration has caused so many issues and will almost certainly lead to a civil war in at least one Western county.
Your genetic theory is called eugenics. It was one of the main ideological frameworks to justify atrocities like the Puerto Rican forced sterilization of women by the American government, Jim Crow, and the holocaust.
I'm not saying you're a racist, but you must be careful because you sound like you are.
Peaceful transfer of power is contingent on belief in a nation of laws. I don't believe in that; many and perhaps most don't believe that either. Of course, not all agree on what that rule of law should look like. With that said, the rest of this is irrelevant until something changes. Until I see some sign that this is changing, nothing is going to get better.
I would go farther and say all social stability depends on the rule of law. You can use violence and power to get people to cooperate while you're watching them, but they're never going to work hard and pull forward when you're not watching if they don't buy into the system. People only buy into the system when they perceive the system is consistent and fair and worthy of them accepting their current place in it and pitching in.
Dems were right to put a face on immigration. Whether or not they picked the right face remains to be seen.
My 89 year old mother says that ICE has been parking up at the end of her street. She wanted to know if it would be polite to ask her neighbors if they are illegals.I suggested it would just make them uncomfortable.
You captured the philosophical reasons for the resentment of our immigration policy, but missed the real world reasons. Yes, the average American’s disgust about the gaming of the immigration system by wealthy elites has now managed to supplant their anger at the wealthy’s similar exploitation of the income tax code - no mean feat. You allude to the real reason when you highlight the importance of the American Dream. As I mentioned in this past post entitled “Immigration - The New Slavery” (www.newnationalism.com/domestic-policy/immigration-the-new-slavery) on my website, elites have used the past de facto system of unrestricted immigration to keep wages down on both ends of the educational and economic scale. They wax eloquent about immigrant’s dreams while actively frustrating those of American citizens. and thus betray the American Dream rather than fulfill it. Thus, you’re correct that the issue is not individual immigrants or their origins. It is the scale and true goals of the recent surge in immigration that fuels the opposition.
I absolutely should have also something about impact on labor. It's a fair criticism that this was a third reason for the discontent.
Not to mention massive deportation efforts is the only thing that will restore faith in the system for a majority of Americans. It is not just about stopping years of bad actions. It is about showing they can be reversed.
I agree that many Americans don't want mass deportation, but they do want the deportation of illegal aliens who are violent criminal gang members.
Absolutely. The point I'm trying to make is that it's not even about who is made to leave, but the way that it is done. If one of the problems was violating the rule of law and democratic accountability, then it's important to proceed under the rule of law and democratic accountability.
The Supreme Court will ultimately clarify what process is due various status aliens.
It’s not clear to me exactly why the Biden administration decided that it was a good idea to open our borders to millions of unskilled, uneducated people. Allowing a relative small number of the well educated in each year is probability a good idea.
This was one of the most disastrous policies the country has seen in my long lifetime. Importing millions of people who will work for next to nothing just to be here undermines the wages of our working class and exacerbates our national housing crisis when we can’t house our own citizens. It consumed billions of our tax dollars which could have been put to better use.
The age of mass migration is over. People cannot overpopulate their home country and just expect to move to greener pastures. There are no more green pastures. They need to voluntarily reduce their country's population to an environmentally sustainable level, stay there and work to improve their living conditions.
I still don’t understand those who say that we should not deport the majority of these interlopers. They violated our laws and continue to violate them. No one believes that they have a right to visit Paris as a tourist, rent an apartment and live their life there without the permission of the French people and no one would argue that the French have no right to kick them out of that country. Why do the same rules not apply to the United States? They clearly do.
As I think I wrote in another comment here, I suspect it was a mix of moralistic quasi-religious belief and cynicism. There is a big strange in progressivism looking for moral redemption, and immigration was viewed as a moral sacrifice to others to atone for past sins. The other part was a cynical but false belief that this would lead to a permanent political majority.
The problem is that anti-democratic ends and means have already been embraced by all sides. I am increasingly coming to believe that this political arms race has already reached the equivalent of a nuclear exchange, and that there’s no going back.
I think the nuclear metaphor is a good one, but perhaps more hopeful than you think. The usual pattern is that people rush toward oblivion up to the brink and which point they panic and pull back. That's exactly what happened with nuclear weapons.
It's works great, of course, until the one time that it doesn't.
You are more optimistic than I am (which is good, considering the stated aim of your substack). I am not sure I really see any willingness to pull back yet, on either side, just partisan denunciations of tactics that will be hypocritically utilized by the same people as soon as their relative positions are switched. There’s no acknowledgment of using anti democratic and/or authoritarian tactics previously, let alone any evidence of remorse or rethinking.
The closest thing I have seen comes from Steve Teles of Johns Hopkins via his National Affairs essay “Minoritarianism is Everywhere” which just came to my attention this morning, and I don’t think it’s going to have a lot of impact on the people who matter most.
https://nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/minoritarianism-is-everywhere
I'm actually not a Pollyanna about this. It's a real concern. The problem with this sort of thing is you only need to get it wrong one time for everything to collapse forever. So I agree, it's unwise to wish upon a star that everything will magically turn out alright. You have to actually make the right decisions and do the work. But I also have some confidence that, as foolish as people can be, self-preservation eventually kicks in when the crisis comes and they ultimately smarten up.
I thought this was really insightful on immigration. I’m not sure I really understood it until I read this.
Thanks Lucien!
I’d like to respond to an assumption in your article — that everyone would be happy to accept immigrants if they would just assimilate by working hard, showing up for 4th of July parades, follow the rules, assimilate, etc. The fact is, immigrants do all that. ICE is picking people up AT WORK, or when they (following the rules) show up for immigration process appointments. ICE wants to chase down kids in public schools - what’s more assimilative than school? Etc etc. Let’s be real - if a bunch of people are having a big 4th of July picnic in a public park other people mutter “what are they doing here”. The whole “criminals and illegals” messaging only works because it builds on existing prejudices.
My own ancestors were chased out of Pennsylvania for “popery”. They found a more welcoming home in the Irish ghetto of multiethnic Brooklyn, but then one of the family (a priest) lost his parish in what’s now Chinatown because he was too prejudiced against the Chinese immigrants who were taking over the neighborhood from the Irish immigrants. I imagine there are similar stories in the DiStefano family.
At the end of the day, people do want community and they want that community to look like them, but you can also enjoy community that doesn’t all look like you. That’s what’s made America who we are.
I don't actually disagree! Although I didn't say everyone would be happy to accept immigrants. I quite intentionally put up front that some people indeed simply don't like people who are different, some of them even have platforms. My point is that what this small number of people believe isn't what a majority of Americans who voted based on immigration believe, which is why the way the administration is going about immigration is a big mistake.
I don't remember if I left a comment, so apologies if I am repeating myself.
Republicans and conservatives have, in my opinion, not done a great job at articulating why immigration is a problem.
Long ago, I recommend to a big think tank that they frame the border issue as a crisis because it empowers cartels thereby putting innocent women and children in *even more danger*.
It took a while for that to catch on.
Conservatives, or at least those interested in sensible immigration policy, continue leaving the door *wide open* to accusations of racism.
Let’s get real. Biden and all the other politicians did this to water down American values. Why are mosques going up all over the country? Look at Europe. This is being done on purpose. We now have small armies of military age men all over the country. Guess they are gonna need some women?
I think it was a combination both more idealistic and cynical. The idealistic part is that there's a messianic and quasi-religious belief within progressivism holding America must sacrifice to atone for its historical sins, and this was a means of penance. The cynical part was a mistaken belief this would lead to a permanent political majority.
Why would Biden of all people be interested in the creation of Mosques. America has an aging population, and they are willing to the work for less for jobs Americans don't want to do. That is why politicians turn a blind eye to illegal inmigration.
It actually started under GWB. After 911 Bush told us that Islam was a religion of peace and we were not to buy into conspiracy theories about the Muslim peoples.
Then, he proceeded to import 250,000 a year! He did this after we were supposedly attacked by jihadist. Muslim jihadist. But, Bush only imported peaceful Muslims wanting to be free?
How many mosques did the USA have prior to 911?
“A statistical study of mosques in the United States shows that the number of Islamic houses of worship has increased 74 percent since 2000.”
https://thenewamerican.com/us/immigration/number-of-mosques-in-us-jumps-74-percent-since-2000/
I actually do think it's about numbers. We need to see immigration and the mass immigration of the last 30 years in Western nations as separate phenomena.
My understanding of the recent political upheavals in the US and other countries is that globalisation (which included mass immigration) brought massive changes to our societies which really hurt a large number of people, who lost their jobs and/or lost their communities. These changes were actually beneficial to business owners and college graduates, so the establishment parties refused to do anything. Trump created a deep sense of loyalty in many people by standing against mass immigration and globalisation. Similar elections of populist leaders or right-wing parties are unfolding in the UK, France, Germany and other nations for the same reason.
Ultimately, mass immigration is justified by the theory that there are no important genetic differences between human populations that might cause disparities between groups in a multicultural society, and so importing tens of millions of people will have no bad long term effects. I suspect the theory is false, which is why mass immigration has caused so many issues and will almost certainly lead to a civil war in at least one Western county.
Your genetic theory is called eugenics. It was one of the main ideological frameworks to justify atrocities like the Puerto Rican forced sterilization of women by the American government, Jim Crow, and the holocaust.
I'm not saying you're a racist, but you must be careful because you sound like you are.
Peaceful transfer of power is contingent on belief in a nation of laws. I don't believe in that; many and perhaps most don't believe that either. Of course, not all agree on what that rule of law should look like. With that said, the rest of this is irrelevant until something changes. Until I see some sign that this is changing, nothing is going to get better.
I would go farther and say all social stability depends on the rule of law. You can use violence and power to get people to cooperate while you're watching them, but they're never going to work hard and pull forward when you're not watching if they don't buy into the system. People only buy into the system when they perceive the system is consistent and fair and worthy of them accepting their current place in it and pitching in.
Dems were right to put a face on immigration. Whether or not they picked the right face remains to be seen.
My 89 year old mother says that ICE has been parking up at the end of her street. She wanted to know if it would be polite to ask her neighbors if they are illegals.I suggested it would just make them uncomfortable.