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Legal Immigration

"We are a nation of immigrants". You hear this frequently from those who support open borders. It is true. However, immigration in past times was quite different from the flood of legal and illegal immigrants we see today. How so?

• Assimilation - In the past, immigrants left behind their loyalties, dedicated themselves to their new country, worked hard to learn the English language, our culture, and our traditions. They truly became Americans in every way. Today many immigrants retain close ties and loyalties with their homeland. For many, their first loyalty is to their country of origin, not to the United States. This is not true of all legal immigrants, but a portion of them. It is true of nearly ALL illegal immigrants.
   
• Volume - Although there were several immigration waves in the past 2 centuries, the aggregate number of persons who entered the United States each year was insignificant in comparison to today's extremely high numbers.
   
• Overcrowding - In the past, our country had vast stretches of open land. Entire states were sparsely populated, there were few or no resource limitations, no environmental concerns. Today many of us live in overcrowded cities, resources are less readily available, we have considerable environmental challenges, and our quality of live goes down as our population rises. We simply do not have the room and the resources to permit uncontrolled expansion of our population.