Friday, May 19, 2023

America’s Founders Didn’t Support Open Borders, And Neither Should We; Biden’s Border Bungling Is a Gift to Trump

Mákvirágok/Flickr/Cropped/Public Domain
America’s Founders Didn’t Support Open Borders, And Neither Should We:
‘The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits.’
There is little evidence that the founders advocated for a free-for-all, open-door immigration policy.
From the very beginning, even in the absence of immigration law, the founders knew America had to set boundaries. Their top three concerns were the qualifications, assimilation, and allegiance of newcomers. The founders emphasized the moral character and contributions newcomers would bring.
Not only should new migrants have good moral character, but they should also place “high importance to the respectability and character of the American name” and do their best to “preserve its good fame from injury,” as Rep. James Jackson, a Democratic-Republican from Georgia, said in 1790. The founding generation didn’t want convicts and criminals as new immigrants.
George Washington preferred skilled new immigrants, such as “useful mechanics and some particular descriptions of men or professions.” James Madison wanted the “worthy part of mankind to come and settle amongst us,” so they can “increase the wealth and strength of the community; and those who acquire the rights of citizenship, without adding to the strength or wealth of the community are not the people we are in want of.”
How can a new immigrant increase the wealth and strength of a community? Rep. John Laurance clarified:
Every person who comes among us must do one or the other; if he brings money, or other property with him, he evidently increases the general mass of wealth, and if he brings an able body, his labor will be productive of national wealth, and an addition to our domestic strength. Consequently, every person, rich or poor, must add to our wealth and strength, in a greater or less degree.
Assimilation Strengthens and Protects
The United States was founded upon specific ideas and moral principles, as expressed by the eloquent words of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson believed that “it is for the happiness of those united in society to harmonize as much as possible in matters which they must of necessity transact together.”
He feared that if new immigrants believed different ideas, then “with their language, they will transmit [them] to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its direction, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass.” --->READ MORE HERE
Photo: John Moore/Getty Images
Biden’s Border Bungling Is a Gift to Trump:
Donald Trump demonstrated in 2016 that a Republican presidential candidate can run successfully on border security. So why are Democrats, terrified that he might win back his old job next year, tempting fate?
Joe Biden’s overall job approval dipped to a new low of 36% in an ABC News/Washington Post survey released on Sunday. His handling of immigration polls even worse. According to a Global Strategy Group survey taken last month, 58% of voters in seven battleground states disapprove of how he is handling the border, while just 32% approve. Global Strategy Group is a Democratic polling firm.
The administration has been telling itself that illegal immigration isn’t a pressing issue but rather a fetish of hard-hearted GOP governors in border states and Fox News viewers who are already lost to the Democratic Party. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has stated repeatedly that the border is secure. Yet U.S. Customs and Border Protection data continue to give the opposite impression, as do images of hordes of migrants crossing the Rio Grande and entering the country illegally.
The latest figures available from DHS show that apprehensions, a proxy measure for unlawful entries, numbered more than 162,000 at the southwest border in March. That represents a 25% rise over the previous month and is more than three times the March average for apprehensions under the Obama and Trump administrations. Illegal border crossings in the past fiscal year surpassed 2.3 million, the most ever, and the backlog of nearly 850,000 asylum cases waiting to be adjudicated is unprecedented.
All of this is poised to worsen considerably in the short run. The president plans to follow through this month on his promise to shelve a rule known as Title 42 that allowed border agents to deport illegal immigrants without allowing them to apply for asylum. Title 42 is a health-emergency measure that was implemented by the Trump administration during Covid. With the pandemic behind us, the White House has argued that Title 42 has outlived its usefulness. The reality is that a humanitarian crisis has replaced the public-health emergency, and Title 42 is one of the few policies preventing a total meltdown of border enforcement. --->READ MORE HERE
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