A Nation of Immigrants | 5 Minute Video — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
2. 0:08These poetic lines, engraved on a bronze plaque beneath the Statue of Liberty, speak to who
3. 0:13we are: a nation of immigrants.
4. 0:16Until now . . .
5. 0:18As Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer lamented, “Tears are running down the cheeks of the
6. 0:22Statue of Liberty.”
7. 0:24We’ve turned our backs on those huddled masses.
8. 0:26Closed our borders.
9. 0:28Separated families.
10. 0:29Hardened our hearts.
11. 0:31Or so you would think if you only read the headlines or watch TV news.
12. 0:36Just one problem: It’s not true.
13. 0:39The United States still maintains the most generous immigration policies in the world.
14. 0:44Generous to a fault...because the overwhelming numbers have stymied our ability to assimilate
15. 0:50the huddled masses.
16. 0:5250 million residents of America are foreign-born.
17. 0:56In fact, today the United States has more immigrants as a percentage of its total population
18. 1:01than at any time since 1890.
19. 1:04That’s why, to give one illustration, 176 different languages are spoken among students
20. 1:10in the New York City school system.
21. 1:13How did we get here?
22. 1:15For starters, America grants permanent residence to a million people every single year.
23. 1:21And that’s just the tip of the iceberg because of something you’ve probably heard referred
24. 1:25to as “chain migration.”
25. 1:28Chain migration allows immigrants to sponsor not only their immediate family—parents,
26. 1:33spouses and children under age 21, but much of their extended family once they gain citizenship:
27. 1:39unmarried adult children and any children they might have, married adult children and
28. 1:43their children, and brothers and sisters and their children.
29. 1:48Princeton University researchers, using the most recently available data, found that immigrants
30. 1:53sponsored an average of 3.45 additional relatives each.
31. 1:57So, the one million immigrants granted permanent residence each year potentially adds,
32. 2:02over time, another three and a half million.
33. 2:06In addition, an estimated 100,000 refugees and asylum-seekers—people who claim to be
34. 2:11fleeing political or personal strife abroad—enter the country annually.
35. 2:16From 2008 to 2017, the U.S. gave green cards to well over a million people for humanitarian
36. 2:23reasons, allowing them to live and work here permanently.
37. 2:27After five years, they can apply for full citizenship.
38. 2:30We’re not done yet.
39. 2:32In that same time frame, nearly half a million more people came to America through the diversity
40. 2:37visa lottery—a program designed to admit more people from “underrepresented” countries
41. 2:43into the U.S.
42. 2:45Diversity visa applicants don't need a high school education, job skills
43. 2:49—or pretty much anything.
44. 2:50And, thanks again to chain migration, spouses and unmarried children under 21 of visa lottery
45. 2:55winners also get to come to America.
46. 2:59This non-stop flow of new legal immigrants—based on family ties instead of skills, abilities,
47. 3:05and allegiance to American values—has, of course, been supplemented by millions who
48. 3:09enter the country illegally and stay illegally.
49. 3:13Dominant media outlets use the euphemism “undocumented,” but the official U.S. government term
50. 3:19used in federal statutes is “illegal alien”: an unlawful entrant who came without permission
51. 3:25and stays in open defiance of our laws.
52. 3:28The number of illegal aliens in the country is usually given as 11 million, but have you
53. 3:33noticed that number never seems to change?
54. 3:35Common sense suggests it’s higher—much higher.
55. 3:39And though illegal aliens themselves don’t qualify for welfare, they receive free health
56. 3:44care in our clinics and hospitals, and through their American-born children they can expect
57. 3:48to receive all manner of benefits—cash aid, food stamps, and housing vouchers.
58. 3:53Their children are entitled to a free education in public schools.
59. 3:58Building a high-tech border barrier would certainly help stem this flow.
60. 4:02Ending chain migration is another obvious remedy.
61. 4:05E-Verify, the national database that allows employers to check workers’ immigration
62. 4:09status, is also essential.
63. 4:12So is a fully-functioning entry-exit system to track visa overstayers.
64. 4:17But all solutions will ultimately fail unless we get control of the numbers and enforce
65. 4:22our laws consistently.
66. 4:24It’s Sovereignty 101: This is our home and we have not only the right, but the responsibility,
67. 4:31to determine who comes in, how many come in, and what qualities and qualifications they bring.
68. 4:37The truth is, we let in millions.
69. 4:39And, of course, millions more want to come.
70. 4:42Who can blame them?
71. 4:43But it’s simply not possible or desirable to let in everyone.
72. 4:48And it’s not hateful to say so.
73. 4:50It’s not hateful to protect our borders.
74. 4:52It’s not hateful to protect our citizens.
75. 4:55It’s not hateful to protect our values.
76. 4:58Lady Liberty may be shedding tears—not because we’ve stopped welcoming immigrants,
77. 5:03but because our ill-conceived immigration policies are threatening the American Dream.
78. 5:09I’m Michelle Malkin, CRTV host and author of Invasion and Sold Out, for Prager University.