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Furthermore, our broken immigration system combined with multiculturalism is eroding America's sovereignty and the national identity of its citizens. Once in America, recent immigrants have little incentive to become Americans because the liberal culture tells them that we are a multicultural nation of immigrants rather than a nation of people from many different countries embracing the American culture. Separation, not assimilation, has become the norm: Mexican-American; Pakistani-American; Arab-American; Chinese-American. This hyphenation of America can only lead to the creation of divided loyalties, which only plays into the hands of America's enemies, of which there are many. If our elected officials are serious about 1) protecting America's borders, 2) increasing security at home, 3) creating jobs instead of handouts for America's disadvantaged, and 4) preserving our national unity, then any reform needs to address the following issues. First, since symbolism is important, renaming the bureau responsible for assimilating newly arrived immigrants to "The Immigration and Americanization Service" is a good start. Second, language is the glue that holds a country together. English must become the official language of America. It is the language of our Constitution and the language of economic opportunity. Unfortunately, both political parties have started a shameful policy of pandering to recent immigrants (especially Mexicans) by allowing for a dual-language system. In my home state of Maryland, you can take a driver's license exam in Spanish, but why not in Hebrew or Turkish? Third, loyalty to America matters, especially after the national calamity of September 11. We should not apologize for asking immigrants to be patriotic. The Pledge of Allegiance should once more be a mandatory part of every child's school day. Swearing-in ceremonies for new American citizens must be administered only in English and not in any other language. The citizenship exams — which today only require the prospective citizen to identify their senators and congressman — must include questions about the history of America and its Constitution. The issue of dual citizenship must also be seriously questioned. Fourth, since the basis of our current immigration policy is "family reunification," when one member of an immigrant family gains a foothold he or she begins a chain migration by bringing in the entire extended family. This places an enormous burden on our nation's resources. Family members of recent immigrants expect access to Medicare and Medicaid. The demands on the public-school system are staggering due to explosive growth in the population of new immigrant children. Counties throughout America are struggling to pay for the education of millions of these new immigrant children, not to mention a bilingual-education bureaucracy that has been forced upon them. This crowding out of precious resources for elderly and disadvantaged Americans is a consequence of a failed immigration policy that can only be addressed by a temporary moratorium on immigrant visas to the United States. The American economy would receive an enormous boost if we cut back on immigrant visas and instead focused on the issuance of visitors' visas (another form of family unification without the cost to American taxpayers) and student visas. Both visas would be temporary. Visitors would spend money and students would learn about America. Both would eventually have to return. Of course, it is crucial that the new immigration office devise strict guidelines governing who is allowed into America and then ensuring that they do not overstay their visas. Fifth, one of America's top moral priorities is the healing of America's black and native-American communities. To the extent that the large-scale immigration of the 1990s (illegal as well as legal) interferes with meeting black Americans' socioeconomic needs, immigration reform must address the correlation between black unemployment and immigration. Consider what Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies calls "the intersection of affirmative action and immigration." Since minority status is fungible and any kind of minority status counts towards the goal of affirmative action, businesses have avoided hiring blacks simply by hiring immigrants. Therefore, under the banner of diversity, a window of opportunity has opened for recent immigrants (primarily Hispanics and Asians) and that same window has been slammed shut on the black underclass. In short, affirmative action's black-centered rationale is being undermined by mass immigration. America's out-of-control immigration policy should be addressed immediately by both the Congress and the White House before our country becomes the Balkanized States of America instead of the United States of America. — Rob Sobhani is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and president of Caspian Energy Consulting. |
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he House vote to abolish the INS and split it into two bureaus completely
fails to address the root problems America faces as a result of its broken
immigration policy. The 1990s mass immigration to America is the result
of foreign policy directives that failed to address the core problems
of freedom, economic opportunity, and corruption in countries like Mexico,
Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, India, and the Philippines, among others.
With few exceptions, the citizens of these countries come to America to
escape poverty, repression and corruption, not necessarily to become
Americans.
