Celebrity Selena Gomez recently posted, and then quickly deleted, a video of herself sobbing uncontrollably over the treatment of illegal immigrants being expelled by the Trump administration.
Gomez was, of course, mercilessly mocked by conservatives across social media. And there's really nothing wrong with sympathizing with those trying to escape the deprivation and tyranny of the Third World. Most of us, I assume, would do the same for our families.
The frustration, though, is misplaced.
While I'm also a fan of immigration for economic and patriotic reasons, dismissing the negative cultural externalities -- including violent crimes -- that can accompany chaotic mass immigration, illegal or not, does the cause no favors.
The fact is we could build a giant bubble around the entire country right now, and the United States would still reign as the most welcoming place for foreigners that's ever existed. And if we want that title to remain, championing legal avenues and decrying mass criminality and anarchy is the way to go. Because what's happening now is only going to turn decent people against legal immigration.
In recent years, American citizenship has been transformed from a sacred privilege bestowed on the lucky, gracious newcomer into a right that's demanded of us by people who break or circumvent the law.
Moreover, illegal immigration is inhumane -- and not only to those swept up in the human trafficking and dangers of the southern border.
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Democrats talk about people living in the shadows. It's true. Those here illegally will never be integrated into society. Even if they don't benefit from welfare programs, they inevitably end up relying on taxpayers. This, too, causes resentment.
The left acts as if we have a sacred oath to accept every refugee, but they have done virtually everything possible to destroy the public's trust in the system. In 2021, Democrats scrapped the "Remain in Mexico" policy that compelled migrants to wait in that country while their claims were being adjudicated in court (until finally, the administration was forced by a court to reinstate the policy).
As Europe has shown us, accepting unlimited numbers of refugees from the same area at the same time with the same ideas and the same problems leads to ethnic enclaves, poor integration and reactionary nativist politics.
Though it's not just refugees or illegal immigrants who can give immigrants a bad name.
Take the student visa problem. Just because your Gulf State petro-daddy or Chicom apparatchik parents can pay your way doesn't mean we have any responsibility to host you. Colleges love foreign students because they pay cash for the whole ride, but too many of them are flying terrorist flags and creating havoc on our campuses. The spectacle almost surely makes normies less inclined to see immigration as a societal positive. Understandably so.
Leftists and civil libertarians had a breakdown when President Donald Trump signed an executive order to revoke student visas from noncitizen college students who participate in pro-Hamas protests. Listen, I'm a staunch supporter of unfettered speech rights of pro-terrorist noncitizens in their own countries. Everyone has an inalienable right to speak freely, but foreigners do not have an inalienable right to gin up hatred against Americans on the Upper West Side. Protest in Tiananmen Square or in front of the royal residence in Riyadh. A nation has the right to dictate the parameters visitors must follow and then expel those who engage in civil unrest.
When my parents defected from Hungary and came here, they were asked if they were members of the Communist Party because its ideology conflicts with American values. We can't bore into the souls of would-be citizens or visa seekers. But we chuck them out if they don't behave.
People often like to virtue-signal, insisting that the United States is a "nation of immigrants" or a nation of "ideas" rather than one of blood and soil. Those are both true statements to some extent. One of the "ideas" we had, though, was to be a sovereign nation that houses a set of norms, traditions, civic institutions, culture, laws, rights and virtues. We've been astoundingly successful at absorbing immigrants on a massive scale because the expectation was everyone would embrace our values.
Does anyone think we're getting better at assimilating immigrants?
In the end, there are tons of laws we dislike, but the government upholds them anyway. Democrats say we're a nation of laws, and yet when it comes to illegal aliens, they're horrified that anyone might uphold them. If they truly cared about the future of immigration, they'd demand order, not feed chaos.
David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books -- the most recent, "The Rise of Blue Anon," available now. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post and numerous other publications. Follow him on X @davidharsanyi.
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