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My lifelong opinions on immigration have changed the last few years.
When I was younger, I saw immigration as an unvarnished good. An unqualified good for the country.
And I still think immigration is, and has always been, America’s secret weapon.
But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to a few realizations.
Number one, not all groups of immigrants are the same.
Not all ways people immigrate are the same.
And not everyone in this country sees things the way I do.
I think under Biden we had too much immigration, too fast, and too uncontrolled.
And programs like H-1B allowed a lot of immigration without maybe real voter consent. Not in the sense that people voted on the scale and tradeoffs directly and said, yes, this is what we want.
I still think the vast majority of Americans see immigration as a positive, even Republicans.
Personally, I believe immigration is one of the things that made America America.
And ironically, the people who struggle the most with immigration often have it exactly backwards.
Immigrants have balls.
They come to a foreign country. They often don’t know the language, the customs, the rules, or anyone here. And they come to the United States and build a life for themselves.
That is incredibly admirable and remarkable.
And the type of people who self-select to do that are often some of the best people in the world.
I really believe that.
I believe America attracts some of the very best people on the planet, and we will continue to do so.
And it doesn’t have to be some romantic story where everyone is coming here only for freedom or democracy or whatever.
Economic immigration has always been a huge part of the story too.
People come here because they want a better life. They want opportunity. They want their kids to have a better shot.
That is not a bad thing. That is one of the most American things imaginable.
But here’s where my views have changed.
I don’t think assimilation is optional anymore.
If you want to have a country that continues to bring in large numbers of immigrants, assimilation is not some outdated idea. It is essential. It is the key component that makes the whole thing work.
Because if my son loses his job, or I lose my job, to an immigrant, yeah, that can cause resentment.
That’s human nature.
But if you lose your job to an American who has a different ethnic background, but is fully American, that feels different.
Maybe his parents came here from somewhere else. Maybe his grandparents did. Maybe his family has been here one generation, five generations, or ten.
But he’s just an American kid.
He likes football. He was in Boy Scouts. He plays video games. He listens to the same music. He’s on TikTok all day. He complains about school. He watches the same shows. He has the same weird slang as every other kid.
He is not some foreign presence.
He is just an American.
And America is really good at doing that.
We can take people from anywhere in the world and turn them into Americans in a generation or two.
That is our greatest strength as a country.
But it doesn’t happen by magic.
It requires enough control that people believe the system is fair.
It requires enough time and space for people to assimilate.
It requires a culture that actually believes becoming American means something.
And it requires leaders who understand that immigration only works long term if the American people believe they have a say in it.
We have fair laws, and we enforce them. We have a secure border and a generous & humane legal immigration process.
So my view now is not “immigration good” or “immigration bad.”
It’s more like this:
Immigration is one of America’s greatest strengths.
But too much, too fast, too uncontrolled, without consent and without assimilation, can turn that strength into a source of resentment and division.
The goal should not be to shut the door.
The goal should be to make immigration work again in the way America has always been uniquely good at making it work:
Bring people in.
Give them a real shot.
Expect them to become Americans.
And be proud that they do.
USA USA USA
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