Assimilate or hit the brakes



Immigration remains one of the defining questions of American politics because it forces a nation to answer fundamental questions about itself. Who belongs, who may enter, and what obligations do newcomers assume?

America is undeniably a nation shaped by immigrants. Yet acknowledging that history does not require abandoning the principles that made immigration successful in the first place. The United States became a destination because those who came entered a constitutional republic with laws, institutions, and a distinct civic culture.

The first obligation of any immigration system is control of the border. Enforcement cannot depend upon which political party occupies the White House.

A serious immigration policy begins with a simple proposition: Immigration should strengthen the country.

America faces demographic challenges, an aging population, and increasing pressure on entitlement programs. Productive immigrants who enter legally, work, pay taxes, and contribute to economic growth can help ease those burdens.

At the same time, immigration policy exists primarily to benefit American citizens, not employers seeking cheaper labor. Large inflows of low-skill labor can place downward pressure on wages and strain public resources.

America is not simply an economy or a geographic territory. It is a constitutional nation built upon individual liberty, equal justice under law, religious freedom, private property, free speech, and limited government.

Recent elections in several American communities have also highlighted another reality often ignored in immigration debates. Immigration does not merely affect labor markets or public finances. Over time, it reshapes the electorate itself.

RELATED: Mamdani’s one-word border answer said it all

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The growing political influence of Muslim candidates in some local and state elections demonstrates how demographic change eventually becomes political change. In a constitutional republic, every citizen possesses the same right to vote, participate, and seek office regardless of religion. The relevant question is not faith, but whether elected officials support equal rights, constitutional government, and the civic norms that hold a diverse nation together.

The first obligation of any immigration system is control of the border. Enforcement cannot depend upon which political party occupies the White House.

Immigration succeeds when it serves the national interest. America should welcome those who enter legally, contribute productively, respect the Constitution, and seek to become part of the American nation.

RFK Jr. highlights the Biden administration's failure, stresses it's 'not that hard' to seal the border — and Trump's wall is part of the solution



Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has once again called out the Biden administration for its catastrophic failure to secure the nation's southern border, stressing that sealing the boundary is "not that hard" to do — particularly when President Joe Biden's predecessor managed fairly well.

Kennedy, Biden's top rival ahead of the 2024 Democratic presidential primary, dispelled mischaracterizations about his positions advanced by the liberal media and answered pressing questions about America's restoration at the NewsNation town hall Wednesday night.

The mediator, NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas, referenced the comments Kennedy made earlier this month after he had traveled to Yuma, Arizona, to survey the fallout of the Biden administration's border policies.

"This is not a good thing for our country. It's not a good thing for these people. And it's unsustainable," Kennedy said in a June 6 cellphone video, with illegal aliens from China, Peru, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Cameroon reportedly behind him.

The Democratic presidential candidate also told NewsNation's Ali Bradley in early June that the border under Biden is a "dystopian nightmare" that clearly could have been prevented, in part by bolstering defensive infrastructure, leaning on Mexico and Central American countries to stem the flow of migrants, and entertaining a baseline willingness to enforce the law of the land.

Following Vargas' invocation of Kennedy's earlier claim that the border is a "dystopian nightmare," Josue Pasillas, the son of Mexican immigrants, asked the presidential candidate about his plan to address immigration.

"I don't think that it's going to be possible to get an immigration reform package through Congress until we seal the border," said Kennedy. "In the last three years, 7 million people have come across the border illegally. ... The cartels are now running U.S. immigration."

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, over 1.6 million people stole into the U.S. between October 2022 and May. Between October 2021 and September 2022, roughly 2.4 million illegal aliens were encountered at the border, and there were another 1.7 million encountered during the same stretch the previous fiscal year.

"The cartels are now advertising all over the world that there's an open border and they're bringing people in. They give them videos about exactly what to do. They fly to Mexico. They're given visas there, internal visas in Mexico. They go from Mexico City on a plane to Mexicali. They're loaded on fleets of buses and then brought to the border and they cross," said Kennedy.

Contrary to Vargas' suggestion that many migrants are ultimately ousted, the Democratic candidate stated, "Illegal immigration — everybody gets in. I watched it."

"The only role of the Border Patrol is to stamp them in and check if they have a criminal record. If they don't, they are brought to the airport and they are given a ticket to any city in the United States that they want to go to."

Although Kennedy has previously emphasized the adverse impact illegal immigration has on America, particularly on its poor and working-class citizens, he highlighted during Wednesday's town hall that under the Biden administration, illegal migrants shuttled over by the cartels are "being exploited, they're being extorted, they're being raped, they're being robbed."

After Kennedy impressed upon the audience the dire nature of the border crisis, Vargas pressed him for a remedy.

"It's not that hard," said Kennedy, admitting former President Donald Trump's wall will be part of the solution and highlighting how illegal border entries were a tiny fraction during Trump's tenure of what they are now.

"I was against Trump's wall, but having seen it down there, I see that ... we're required to give a physical barrier," said Kennedy. "Certain highly densely populated areas, you need a physical barrier."

Kennedy indicated that while it is advisable to fill in the gaps, it is untenable to build a border wall all the way from San Diego, California, to Brownsville, Texas. Instead, along vast stretches of the "hinterland," he indicated he would install ground sensors and towers "like they do in Israel."

Kennedy said that, as a Democrat, he was "very embarrassed" by the actions taken and policy changes made by the Biden administration, which have resulted in the global "presumption that everybody gets in. ... No nation can survive if they can't protect their borders."

‘Not that hard’ to seal the border, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says | RFK Jr. Town Hall youtu.be

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