Biden’s spending spree and Fed blunders started the bank crisis.
Our Country or No Country
Joe Biden’s disastrous immigration policy has done irreparable damage to our nation.
America is experiencing the worst catastrophe at its southern border in its entire history. An estimated ten million illegal migrants are expected to have entered from Mexico by the time Biden completes his first term, a number that exceeds the total population of 40 of 50 states. Cities like New York are taking in tens of thousands of illegal aliens per month, inundating schools, public housing, hospitals, and roadways to capacities beyond anyone’s ability to manage. The situation has gotten so bad that it has even made some Democratic mayors, such as Eric Adams, sound the alarm bell. In a rare moment of honesty, last year Adams said Biden’s border crisis would “destroy NYC”—a line that is near-blasphemous for the party of open borders.
Being well beyond overcapacity, these mayors have had no choice than to retrofit once-iconic buildings, such as New York’s historic Roosevelt Hotel, into migrant centers. At these locations, low-skilled illegals, not just from Central America but all over the world, are being housed at public expense, bleeding these cities dry of critical resources.
As many Americans suspect, Biden’s disastrous immigration policy is operating by design. From the start of his administration, Biden actively incentivized illegal immigration with policies such as halting deportations; ending the pandemic-era “Title 42”; suspending “remain in Mexico”; lowering the standards to qualify for asylum; resuming catch and release; and dismantling parts of the border wall. Border patrol, at both federal and especially the state level, has been neutered. Countless instances of border patrol agents removing barbed wire and other fencing to facilitate illegal border crossings have been documented by investigative journalists who have traveled to El Paso and other hotbeds of illegal border crossing. Meanwhile, the Biden regime has demonized ICE beyond repair: ICE lacks the government backing to now carry out the most basic duties. Many of their most capable agents have been forced into early retirement as a result of a top-down demoralization campaign at the behest of the Biden White House—a policy approach driven by the slogans of the most extreme Antifa activists, such as “no human is illegal” and “all borders are racist.”
The influx of illegal migrants is exacerbated by the number of illegals already residing in this country–official estimates are anywhere between ten and 16 million, figures that are widely believed to be a dramatic underestimation. The real number is likely an additional ten, 20, or even 30 million-plus: meaning that potentially upwards of 1 out of every 10 people currently in the United States is here unlawfully.
A society that cannot preserve the integrity of its borders, a fundamental role of government, has abdicated its national identity. The situation is made worse by the fact that birthrates, especially among the native-born population, are at all-time lows. Indeed, the birth replacement ratio, which measures how many babies per woman are needed to sustain the current population, is below replacement rates in nearly all 50 states. Not surprisingly, this has resulted in major demographic and cultural transformations to our country, which will be felt for generations to come.
Indicators of this change are not hard to find. Whites die at a faster rate than are being born in a majority of states; the non-Hispanic white population has already fallen below 50 percent in many states, and in certain states, like Texas, Hispanics outnumber whites outright; English proficiency among school children is at all-time lows nationwide; native born whites are actively selected against at predatory rates via affirmative action in universities and in hiring throughout the corporate world (see this headline: “The year after Black Lives Matter protests, the S&P 100 added more than 300,000 jobs—94% went to people of color”).
States like Arizona and California, which boast some of the largest Hispanic populations in the country, do not require proof of citizenship to vote. Our justice system has forced into early retirement many older, experienced whites, replacing them with first- or second-generation Americans, many of whom lack longstanding ties to this land and have been brainwashed with anti-white, anti-Western propaganda over many years in the education system. This goes a long way toward explaining the degradation and weaponization of the justice system against Donald Trump and his supporters—and why our justice system increasingly resembles a banana republic. Our new demographic reality also goes a long way to explaining why the rule of law in this country is hanging by a thread. The source countries of most immigration over the last 65 years are not strongly supported by institutions of due process.
It is not problematic for a people who can trace their ancestral lineage back more than just a few generations, some even to the founding of the republic itself, to want to preserve their heritage and legacy, and perpetuate that legacy well beyond the present. This is the way healthy nations have operated since the beginning of time. Nor is it controversial for those invested in the broader history of Western civilization to want to populate those continents traditionally—and, until very recently—without controversy, deemed uniquely Western. Advocacy for limited, rational immigration, increased birthrates among the native born, and an end to suicidal policies that select against their own, like affirmative action and DEI, should not require extensive apologies.
To this end, any Western country should implement sensible reforms that, stated plainly, grow the native population while keeping foreign invaders out. This is not provocative, but comes down to basic survival: the timeless adage Rome fell from within should be a premonitory reminder of what is now happening to America, which is on the verge of outsourcing its cultural identity to the world—and poised to face certain doom without a dramatic course correction.
Broadly speaking, how these reforms look can be described in several key policies. The first is to implement deportations targeting every single illegal alien domiciled within our borders. Whether that figure is ten million or 50 million, law enforcement should be given discretion to implement the most comprehensive deportation campaign in the history of this country. The deportation campaign should be supplemented with economic disincentives such as taxes on all remittances being sent out of the United States by foreign migrants. American citizens should no longer be able to sponsor illegals such as by providing them with a pathway to citizenship through marriage. The H-1B visa program should be suspended, and all businesses that are found hiring illegals at a significant capacity should be hit with steep fines. Conferring birthright citizenship upon “anchor babies” should be forever retired. Ditto the concept of “sanctuary cities.” And, of course, no illegal—or even, lawfully-residing alien here on a visa—should be permitted to vote or receive a driver’s license, let alone have access to public resources.
The southern border wall must be completed, fortified, and ideally, militarized—secured with both round-the-clock military presences, supplemented by drones, artificial intelligence, and all the latest in surveillance technologies. Security personnel must be empowered to interdict illegal entrants, quash dangerous drug cartels, and otherwise maintain the integrity of the nation’s borders.
A ten-year moratorium on immigration should be imposed on every part of the world. The process of naturalization should be rigorous. New citizens must not only be able to pass the standard citizenship test, but demonstrate proficiency in the English tongue. Ideally, they should be required to summarize and explain excerpts of seminal American works such as the Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, and The Federalist Papers.
Though these standards may sound harsh, especially in light of our lack of standards today, a revolutionary approach is ultimately what is required to reverse all the damage done by the Biden regime and its suicidal immigration policies. Without a reversal in policy, standards will only continue to decline, and each year our descent into oblivion will become more and more certain.
The American Mind presents a range of perspectives. Views are writers’ own and do not necessarily represent those of The Claremont Institute.
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