Immigration, Assimilation, and the American Identity

Immigration, Assimilation, and the American Identity

Tip: Set the post’s Featured Image in the post settings to power the hero banner above. (Delete this note before publishing.)

Introduction

Tonight’s focus is simple: Immigration—what it was meant to be, what it has become, and how it’s reshaping the nation’s character. What we call “immigration” today bears little resemblance to the constitutional principles or historic practices envisioned by America’s founders.

The modern crisis is not immigration in the traditional sense; it’s a massive invasion enabled and protected by political forces that profit from disorder. As President Trump correctly identified long before taking office, it is a deliberate erosion of sovereignty—driven by the Democrat Party’s hunger for power and demographic advantage.

The Founders’ Intent

From the beginning, America’s founders saw immigration as a privilege, not an entitlement. Citizenship was to be extended only by the consent of the governed and only to those prepared to abandon prior allegiances and embrace American principles.

“No society can withstand unconditional mass migration from every corner of the earth. The preservation of a nation’s sovereignty, culture, and customs requires citizenship to be granted only to those willing to pledge allegiance to its laws and ideals.”

Edward J. Erler, Claremont Institute

In short, immigration was designed to improve the existing society, not to overwhelm or replace it.

When Policy Turned Political

The Immigration Act of 1965 marked a revolutionary break with America’s past. Author Theodore White called it “the most thoughtless act of the Great Society,” a policy that abandoned merit, assimilation, and national interest.

Even labor icons like César Chávez opposed illegal immigration, knowing it undermined American workers and exploited the vulnerable. In 1969, the UFW reported illegal labor to federal authorities—something today’s left would denounce as “inhumane.”

A Party of Reversal

For over two centuries, immigration law prioritized loyalty, morality, and assimilation. Only recently did the Democrat Party reverse this foundation, turning border law into a political weapon.

By encouraging mass entry, sanctuary cities, and birthright incentives, they’ve transformed immigration into a vote-manufacturing system. The result: weakened borders, exploited migrants, and empowered cartels.

The Warnings Ignored

“If you wanted to destroy America, this is how you’d do it: promote multiculturalism, replace the melting pot with a salad bowl, make the fastest-growing demographic the least educated, and fund victimhood through major corporations and foundations.”

Gov. Richard Lamm (2003)

He predicted the rise of “racism” as a weaponized label to silence dissent—and the demise of assimilation through bureaucratic cowardice.

Founders on Assimilation

America’s founders understood assimilation as essential to survival. Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton all warned that concentrated foreign settlements would erode national language and liberty. Franklin wrote in the 1750s:

“Unless the stream of importation be turned, they will soon so outnumber us that our language and even our government will become precarious.”

Benjamin Franklin

Their answer was integration through education and dispersion, ensuring immigrants became Americans—not permanent outsiders.

Huntington’s Prophecy

The late Harvard professor Samuel P. Huntington, in Who Are We?, observed that by 2000 the American elite had lost faith in assimilation, replacing it with the “doctrine of diversity.”

“Immigrants now assimilate into American society without assimilating to American culture. America’s leaders have become divorced from its people.”

Samuel P. Huntington

That divorce has produced an unrepresentative democracy, where elites legislate against the will of citizens—particularly on immigration and national identity.

Education and Citizenship

For most of the 20th century, public education fostered patriotism and unity. Local and state systems taught Americanization—shared language, law, and civic values.

Today, those same systems promote cultural relativism and entitlement. Immigration has become detached from merit or allegiance; it’s treated as a humanitarian subsidy rather than a civic responsibility.

Reversing Two Centuries of Law

Benefits such as driver’s licenses, emergency healthcare, and welfare for illegal entrants invert the logic of citizenship. These measures reward violation and punish compliance, replacing earned belonging with political patronage.

Federal courts now obstruct the president’s constitutional duty to enforce immigration law. Yet the Supreme Court settled this in 1827 (Martin v. Mott):

“The authority to repel invasions and execute the laws of the Union is vested exclusively in the President, and his decision is conclusive upon all persons.”

U.S. Supreme Court, 1827

That precedent affirms the executive’s plenary power over immigration—contradicted today by activist judges and sanctuary states.

The Cultural Fallout

Open borders have bred exploitation, sex trafficking, and child disappearance on a massive scale. Cartels profit while cities collapse under social and fiscal strain. What was once a system for integrating individuals has become a global pipeline of chaos.

The Multicultural Mirage

Even lifelong Democrat Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., in The Disuniting of America, warned that abandoning assimilation would dissolve the glue that holds a multi-ethnic republic together.

“America’s solution to diversity was to create a new identity that transcends ethnicity. To reject that is to invite disunion.”

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Today, that disunion is visible on our streets, campuses, and political discourse. The experiment in diversity without unity has failed.

Conclusion

Immigration was never meant to dismantle the nation that offered it. It was meant to strengthen and enrich a shared civilization through allegiance, education, and faith in liberty.

When political elites weaponize immigration for power, they betray both citizens and migrants alike. The American ideal was simple: one people, under one flag, governed by consent—not chaos.

“Citizenship, assimilation, and patriotism once defined America. Their erosion defines its peril.”

Samuel P. Huntington (paraphrase)

Until those truths are restored, the nation’s borders will remain open—and so will its wounds.

Post Meta

Category: Politics / American History / Immigration
Keywords: Immigration, Founding Fathers, Assimilation, Democrat Party, Constitution, National Identity, Multiculturalism, Federal Law
Tags: #Immigration #FoundingFathers #Sovereignty #Constitution #Multiculturalism #NationalIdentity #Americanization

“A nation is a people bound by allegiance to a shared civilization.”

Editor’s Note