The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“It’s time for a very difficult and very deep conversation about immigration. . . . Americans are all descendants of immigrants at some level of their DNA, except the original Indigenous peoples, who were here first.
“Even my Ancestry DNA tests tell me how ‘mixed’ and ‘mixed up’ my family tree is from one side to the other, with majority West African (now Nigerian, Kenyan, etc) and a blend of Irish, English, Scottish, Asian and Indigenous. No one is ‘all one race’ but we are all combinations of other nationalities, ethnicities, religious and racial groups.
“Even America’s “Founding Fathers” like George Washington and the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, took a boat to get here! . . . “America has moved people over and out to make way for expansion, brought people in to work the land, build railroad systems, build cities small and large. . . .
“New people are trying to ‘come to America’ because they think life is better here. After all, we are still the major power in the world and everything ‘looks’ good on the other side of the Rio Grande, at least on paper. Jobs are everywhere, or so some tell me, because stores and restaurants don’t have enough trained personnel/staff. If you think they are taking ‘your jobs’, then why aren’t you at work?
“Yes, we need and must have a viable, workable immigration policy. Yes, Congress must be willing to support the president in finding a solution, the same one they missed for the past five administrations. . . .
“Solve America’s immigration problems without destroying homes and lives, and you have half the battle won.”—Immigration Made America Great, So Why the Scramble to Keep Them Out, Rose McCall, The Montgomery Advertiser, Rose McCall, 12/29/23 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: The writer claims that she wants a “deep” and “difficult” conversation about immigration, but the bulk of McCall’s article reveals that this is the last kind of conversation she wants. It mainly consists of feel-good generalizations about immigration, without any serious analysis or reflection. She proclaims the tiresome cliché that “we’re a nation of immigrants,” a statement which gives no guidance as to how much immigration we need and what kinds of immigrants we should select. As the writer proclaims how wonderfully “mixed” Americans are, she offers no concern about how much diversity we can absorb before we no longer have any kind of assimilation.
McCaul says we need immigrants to fill jobs, but offers no suggestion on how many immigrants. Is she aware that mass immigration drives down wages of Americans workers, particularly those at the lower end of the economic scale? A “deep” discussion would consider this issue.
The author states that immigrants “built” America, but now that America is built as a modern society, do we still need the large numbers of immigrants that we admitted in the past? That would be another topic for a in-depth conversation.
McCaul is factually wrong when she claims that the Founders and Declaration signers were immigrants “off the boat.” The great majority of them were native-born Americans. She also errs by repeating the well-worn falsehood that all of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. By commonly understood definition, an immigrant is someone who moves from one developed country to another. That does not include the pioneers and settlers who, in a wilderness, first laid the foundation of this country. Immigrants subsequently contributed to America, but they and their descendants owe respect to those pioneers and settlers.
When the author says we must have a “viable” and “workable” immigration policy. She is correct, but her ideas and mindset won’t lead to anything viable or workable.