Immigration and How the Melting Pot Has Boiled Over

Americans weigh in on whom they want in the country and whom they don’t.

This month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that, thanks to President Donald Trump, more than 2.5 million illegal aliens have left the United States. It claims to be “shattering records with more than 605,000 deportations and 1.9 million self-deportations.” Television ads featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem put the immigration situation in the simplest terms: If you’re illegal in the United States, you can go home the hard way or the easy way. It’s noteworthy that so many have decided on their own to hightail it somewhere else. Even now, the Customs and Border Patrol website features an app “to get a free flight home for Christmas” along with a parting gift of $1,000.

DHS also emphasized that the first to be deported are the “worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” yet protests and violence against ICE authorities are a staple of the news cycle. If you are only dialed in to the mainstream media, you might come away thinking that Americans are very unhappy about these deportations. But that would be very much in error, according to a new poll conducted by Napolitan News Service.

In fact, 62% of those polled agree that legal immigration is good for the United States, but illegal immigration is bad. Turning the question around, the pollsters asked, “If someone wants to move permanently to the United States, how important is it that he or she has a job and is able to support himself or herself financially?” A whopping 88% of those queried say financial self-sufficiency is essential when moving to the United States. This includes 57% who say it’s very important. Only 7% say it’s not very or not at all critical.

Along these lines, respondents were asked how important it is to be able to read and write English when immigrating to America. A hefty 80% say it’s essential, with 48% claiming it’s very important. That statistic fell along party lines but still by overwhelming majorities: 90% of Republicans and 71% of Democrats agree that a command of the English language is crucial.

Immigration — Picking and Choosing

Who should be allowed into the country henceforth is a bit of a dicey question. A little over half, 52%, say permission to enter the US interior “should go to people with education and skills needed,” according to the Napolitan News poll.  And when it came to whether the voter supports the deportation of some illegals by President Trump, 52% are in favor of the government intervention, 42% oppose it, and 6% are undecided.

The results of this survey clarify several issues concerning immigration. It seems Americans are happy to share their country with others so long as they can pay their own way. This means they are not comfortable with illegals sucking up public welfare dollars. The poll responders also care about immigrants’ ability to assimilate into American culture by conversing in English.

Historically, the United States has always held out a hand of friendship to immigrants. The classic symbol of welcome – the Statue of Liberty – is adorned with Emma Lazarus’ famed words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Americans have always promised hope and a new future to immigrants, but they come with a cost. Those who would come to this country should be a benefit to it, not a liability. They should appreciate the opportunity by blending into the culture as if it were a giant melting pot.

The melting pot metaphor conjures an image of unity. As Bruce Thornton wrote for the Hoover Institution Digest, “The image of the melting pot drew its strength from the idea of unity fostered by beliefs and ideals — not race, blood, or sect. A century later, Ralph Waldo Emerson used the melting pot image to describe ‘the fusing process’ that ‘transforms the English, the German, the Irish emigrant into an American.’”

In a 1994 campaign speech in Milwaukee, WI, Al Gore said, “We can build a collective civic space large enough for all our separate identities, that we can be ‘e pluribus unum’ — out of one, many.” Gore, of course, had it backward: The ‘e pluribus unum’ phrase stamped onto the Great Seal of the United States, located on the dollar bill, translates to “out of many, one.“ But increasingly, those coming to America don’t want to mesh and meld but rather establish their own cultural communities within the borders of the United States. This appears to be what Americans object to when discussing immigration.